Memorial Day Closures
All city administration facilities and libraries will be closed Monday, May 30 for Memorial Day. Some city facilities and services will be open.
The city’s 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.
“The city has had a long relationship with Community Cycles,” said Sustainability Program Manager Ellen Orleans. “By funding a portion of their annual bike tire recycling, we’ll help them be an even more sustainability-minded organization.”
When community members donate used tires in good working condition to Community Cycles, the non-profit resells them at their bike shop. With this new partnership, Community Cycles can now take worn out tires that cannot be resold to Eco-Cycle’s Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM).
Once received, Eco-Cycle redirects tire materials to local companies for reuse. Recycled tire treads are given to local tire recyclers who turn them into a range of products, including a material called crumb rubber used in road construction. Inner tubes are sent to a Boulder-based company that transforms them into bags, backpacks and other gear.
“As cyclists, we all want to do better for the planet,” said Community Cycles Shop Director Dax Burgos. “I really feel like this is just one less step, one less hurdle for people to do the right thing.”
The partnership between Community Cycles and Eco-Cycle goes beyond tire recycling. The two nonprofits also work together to repurpose old bikes. Community Cycles collects whole bikes and bike parts that community members bring to CHaRM. Participants in Community Cycles’ Earn a Bike program use CHaRM donations to rebuild and refurbish bikes, which are donated to low-income community members and sold in Community Cycles’ bike shop.
The city is committed to building a circular economy that reuses, repairs, recycles and composts an increasing number of materials. Reusing hard-to-recycle materials, like bike tires, moves the city closer towards its goal of becoming a zero waste community. The city aims to divert 85% of its waste from landfills by 2025, an internationally recognized milestone used to define a zero waste community.
Recycling your used tires is a one way to join Boulder’s circular economy. In doing so, your tires are returned to the roads they once rode.
For more information, check out Community Cycles’ donation page.
For more information, visit the CHaRM webpage.