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Waste & Recycling
Cycling toward the circular economy
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By LAUREN CAGGIANO | The Municipal
Sustainability has many faces in 2022. In the case of Boulder, Colo., a bike tire recycling program is taking shape that holds great promise in encouraging residents to enter into what’s known as a circular economy and abandon linear “take-make-waste” habits. The Boulder Climate Initiatives Department has partnered with local nonprofit Community Cycles to launch a bike tire recycling pilot program. City support will cover the cost of recycling up to 2,000 used bike tires. According to Sustainability Program Manager Ellen Orleans, the program is a natural extension of the department’s efforts. “Our department covers both energy and zero waste, the physical end of things,” she said. “So that covers all kinds of community programs. For a long time, we were focused mostly on collecting things that could either be recycled or more safely disposed of.” However, the partnership with Community Cycles represents an opportunity because it means the city adds bike tires to the items being diverted from the landfill. And if you ask Orleans, Community Cycle’s
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ethos makes it the right organization for the job. “They’ve been around for 45 years and have been both our partners and leading the way,” she said. “They began with picking up newspapers, cans and bottles in the 1970s.” Community Cycle’s mission has evolved with the times. As Americans became accustomed to a culture of planned obsolescence, the organization has worked to counteract this wastefulness. It takes used bicycles, parts and tires; buys inner tubes; and leads workshops on how to repair bicycles. “You can get a free bicycle if you join their program where you repair one,” said Orleans. “And the second one you repair, you get to keep for yourself. So, it’s a cool way for people to learn about repair, which is part of our mission, too — repairing things instead of sending them to the landfill.”
Ellen Orleans has been with the city of Boulder, Colo., since 2005, working on issues related to sustainability. (Photo provided by city of Boulder)
