Start With Your Boxes: Free Recycling in the San Luis Valley

Colorado’s recycling program is funded by companies that produce and sell packaging and paper products. Circular Action Alliance, or CAA, is the nonprofit organization that administers the program and reimburses participating providers for covered recycling services. This funding allows participating households to receive covered recycling services at no charge.

For households participating in our upcoming service, recycling collection and the recycling tote will be free. Your regular trash service remains separate.

We’ll use single-stream recycling. That means accepted recyclables go together in one recycling tote, while trash stays in your trash tote. You won’t need separate outdoor containers for each type of recyclable. After collection, materials go through sorting and processing so they can be used to make new products.

We’ll provide your collection schedule and a guide to accepted materials before service starts.

Learn more through RecycleOn Colorado.

A few delivery boxes can take up a surprising amount of space, especially when they haven’t been broken down. Add other accepted packaging, and your trash tote can fill up before pickup day.

Moving those materials into your recycling tote leaves more room for the things that actually belong in the trash. That can mean less crowding, fewer overflowing totes and an easier time keeping the lid closed.

If packaging makes up a large share of your trash, recycling may also help you avoid needing additional trash capacity. The amount of space you gain depends on what your household throws away, but cardboard is an easy place to begin.

You don’t have to change everything at once. When your service begins, start with clean, dry cardboard boxes.

1. Empty the box and remove packing materials.
2. Flatten it so it takes up less room.
3. Place it loose in your recycling tote. Don’t bag it.

Keep boxes dry, and leave plastic bags and plastic film out of the recycling tote. RecycleOn’s Colorado guide explains the basic preparation rules.

Once recycling boxes feels normal, use the accepted-materials guide we provide to add other items to your routine. You can build the habit a little at a time.

Make it convenient inside your home, too. Set a reusable basket or small container next to your trash can so accepted recyclables have a place to go. Empty it loose into your outdoor tote when it fills up.

The extra room in your trash tote is a practical benefit you can see at home. Recycling also helps beyond your driveway.

• Less material going to landfills. Recycling keeps useful materials in circulation and helps conserve landfill capacity.
• Less demand for new raw materials. Recovered paper, metals and other materials can replace some of the timber, minerals and other resources needed to make products.
• Energy savings and fewer emissions. Making many products from recycled materials uses less energy than making them from newly extracted resources and can reduce associated greenhouse gas emissions.
• Support for jobs and businesses. Recycling supports work in collection, transportation, sorting, processing and manufacturing.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains these benefits and how collected materials move through the recycling system.

Our program also makes participation more convenient: an included tote, no recycling service charge and pickup on your trash day. Participating households will be able to recycle accepted everyday materials without making a separate trip to a drop-off location.

Read the EPA’s recycling basics and benefits.

Single-stream recycling makes collection easier, but it doesn’t mean everything belongs in the tote. Follow the accepted-materials guide, keep recyclables empty and dry, and place them in loose.

Food, liquids and the wrong materials can spoil other recyclables or interfere with sorting. Plastic bags, hoses and cords can tangle in equipment. Batteries can cause fires and need separate handling.

If you’re unsure about an item, ask us before putting it in your recycling tote. Colorado’s recycling guide is another useful starting point; SP Services’ final accepted-materials guide will be provided before collection begins.

Reusing a box or container when you can is helpful, too. Recycling gives accepted materials another use when you’re finished with them.

Explore Colorado’s recycling guide. This statewide guide is educational, not SP Services’ confirmed local accepted-materials list.