Give the City of
Broomfield and EcoCycle a dusty, oily old vehicle maintenance
building and look what happens... |
Broomfield has
done something wonderful in the world of recycling, creating a
model not just for Boulder County but for Colorado and far beyond.
In fact, the three-year old Broomfield Community Recycling Center
(BRC) has been highlighted at an international environmental
conference in the South Pacific. What is it in Broomfield that is
drawing international attention? |
Voila! With some help
from the private sector, an award-winning community recycling
facility is born. |
The BRC is nothing
less than the newest, most exciting Drop-off and Community
Education Center in Colorado. Three years ago a vision led to the
reinvention of the old City of Broomfield maintenance garage; what
was once an empty, oily, dark garage is now a thriving recycling
and education facility. The BRC has become the heart of the
environmental community in Broomfield, and has in three short
years instilled a strong recycling ethic in the residential,
business and government sectors of this booming Front Range city.
If you haven’t seen the BRC yet, here’s a picture in words: |
- An inviting
3,000 sq. ft. community center “recycled” from an old city
maintenance garage;
- A staffed
meeting space and classroom, offices, educational displays,
recycling library and a large workroom serving as incubator
space for new recycling projects, including book and computer
recycling partially staffed by employees with developmental
disabilities;
- Recycled,
re-used, and non-toxic construction materials and
energy/water-conserving techniques incorporated into the BRC’s
design;
- A
full-service recycling Drop-off Center and tree limb diversion
center, where a grinder makes mulch for use by Broomfield
residents;
- Year-round
workshops for kids and adults to come together for fun recycling
activities, such as making working clocks out of old computer
parts.
The story of
the BRC stands out as one of the most powerful examples of how a
community can move forward when the three major local
sectors-non-profits, businesses and government-come together with
a common mission. EcoCycle created the vision for the center and
worked with Broomfield City Councilwoman Karen Stuart and
Broomfield Environmental Services Superintendent Kathy Schnoor to
develop a plan. Interlocken Business Park CEO Jim Long, after
seeing the plan presented to and approved by the Broomfield City
Council, offered EcoCycle and the City a large grant to provide
the project with financial grounding. All the ingredients fell
into place, with the City contributing the use of the old building
and land, EcoCycle putting forth the plan, the expertise and
remodeling funds ($50,000), and Interlocken providing a three-year
operating grant of $150,000.
So where does
the South Pacific come in? The international community considers
the BRC to be a valuable model for those parts of the world that
haven’t yet implemented recycling programs. The BRC is a low-cost,
high-impact, high-visibility community project, which may be the
most effective way to jump-start recycling efforts in any town,
anywhere. The BRC approach recognizes that it isn’t enough to put
recycling bins out on a corner somewhere and hope folks will use
them. The true power of the recycling revolution is that it
changes people’s behavior on a daily basis in a way that involves
personal education and inspires hope for the future. Recycling
alone won’t preserve our planet, but it is a powerful first step.
The Broomfield Recycling Center is a community recycling model
that can be duplicated anywhere to get recycling started in
unserved areas of our global community. |
