TATIANA EGGERS, SUSTAINABILITY EDITOR
Curbside Recycling Indefinitely (CRI) is changing the way we recycle on the Western Slope by providing Grand Junction residents with a sustainable, community-based approach to recycling.
CRI is a privately owned and operated recycling program in Grand Junction that works both publicly and privately with the city in order to provide residents with a clean and efficient way to recycle their products.
As compared to most big-city recycling programs, which use a single-stream recycling system, CRI uses a multi-stream system. The Container Recycling Institute states that single-stream recycling combines all recyclables including newspaper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, mail, etc., into one bin to be recycled while multi-stream recycling separates recyclable materials by type before recycling them.
Although the single-stream system is an easier approach to recycling, the multi-stream system ensures that CRI produces clean, non-contaminated materials that are fit for shipping to mills across America.
When talking with CRI Community Outreach Coordinator, Merissa Snyder, she explained how beneficial it can be to put in a little extra time to properly clean and sort recyclable products.
“For being a small company with thirteen people fully staffed, we have a nation-wide reputation for the quality of recyclables that we ship out to mills,” Snyder said, “because of the nature of our program and our knowledgeable residents here in Grand Junction that understand what should be recycled, we have been able to market our material.”
CRI asks that their customers clean their recyclables before sorting them into the six different bins (glass, paper, phone books and magazines, corrugated cardboard, single-layer chipboard, and aluminum, steel, and plastics) available at CRI’s drop-off location.
The program also offers once-per-month recycle pick-up. Participants are given four free 20-gallon bags and they are welcome to use their own containers to sort their recyclable products before placing on the curb for pick-up.
Right now, a quarter of Grand Junction’s households voluntarily recycle with CRI and the CRI drop-off location attracts upwards of a thousand people each month. The program is planning to increase community participation and outreach for the future.
“We are looking to accommodate more people, but we don’t foresee going single-stream because it doesn’t do any good to collect material that we can’t recycle. We are working closely with the city to grow the program and its participants, and we are trying to figure out the best way to do that in a sustainable way,” Snyder said.
In the past, CRI has been active in the community by hosting events at Copeka Coffee and inviting schools and members of the community to tour their facility. Due to COVID-19, CRI has had to adjust to safety regulations and now offer virtual tours to anyone who is interested.
Check out CRI’s website at https://gjcri.com/ and follow their Instagram page at gj.cri1989 for more information!
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