The Grand Junction City Council is considering purchasing Grand Junction Curbside Recycling Indefinitely, a locally owned and operated recycling business. The business already works closely in partnership with the city under the direction of the Solid Waste Management Department. The council discussed the potential purchase in executive session last week. All money derived from the sale of commodities collected at the curb is returned to the city to help offset program costs.
Grand Junction CRI is not a single-stream facility. CRI has maintained a system of pre-sorting recyclables. That effort is why Grand Junction only throws away about 1% of what is taken in, while nationally the waste rate is closer to 25%, CRI Community Outreach Liaison Merissa Snyder told The Sentinel in 2019.
“If it arrives at our facility and meets our guidelines, it will be sent to a mill right here in the U.S. to be manufactured into something new,” according to CRI’s website. The company dates back to 1989, when local citizen Steven Foss volunteered to start a pilot curbside recycling program, according to the CRI website. The program was intended to gauge community interest and the cost for the program.