BCRC News Release - Niwot Recycling Expands

Boulder County is making recycling easier for Niwot residents by expanding the Niwot Recycling Drop-off Center to accept more types of paper recyclables. Now Niwot residents can recycle corrugated cardboard, paperboard, and phone books at the Niwot Drop-off Center.

Even better, residents don’t have to sort these papers into different categories; they can mix them together and put them in with newspaper, magazines, catalogs, office paper and opened mail-all in the bin marked "News Plus."

Guidelines for the newly expanded "News Plus" bin are as follows:

Newspapers and Newspaper Inserts (NO bags or strings)

Magazines & Catalogs

Office Paper & Opened Mail, including:

Copy/printer paper
White and pastel colored paper and envelopes (labels, stamps, and windows on envelopes okay)
Greeting cards
FAX paper
Brochures (glossy okay)
Stationery and letters
Manila or pastel colored file folders

NEW! Corrugated Cardboard and brown paper bags (Cardboard boxes MUST be flattened!!)

NEW! Paperboard materials such as cereal boxes, shoe boxes, and gift boxes (Remove bags from boxes, NO wrapping paper, paper towels, or tissue paper.)

NEW! Phone books

Niwot is the first and currently the only recycling drop-off center in the county accepting all these papers mixed together. Boulder County and Eco-Cycle have created this new mixed paper grade to create more recycling convenience and to accept more materials in outlying communities like Niwot.

The County considers this program to be a pilot, and it will be a test to see if recyclers will still follow guidelines and provide only those materials accepted, even when materials are all mixed together.

One of the keys to the success of the program will be recyclers’ compliance with the guideline that all corrugated cardboard be flattened. Unflattened boxes will fill the box too quickly, increasing hauling prices and making the program too costly to continue.

To help insure that the program continues, the County and Eco-Cycle ask that all recyclers be sure to flatten boxes before putting them in the recycling bin. It is the County’s hope that recyclers will indeed follow these recycling rules so that programs like these may continue and be extended to other communities as well.

For more information on recycling at the Niwot Drop-off Center (located at the trailhead north of Hwy 52 on North 79^th) or at other recycling centers, call the Boulder County Resource Conservation Division at (720) 564-2224, or Eco-Cycle at (303) 444-6634.