It’s hard to feature how a dedicated recycler like Megan Mitchell could possibly up her game.
When Megan and her husband, Gary, bought Cactus Jack’s Saloon in 2001, she wasted no time painting the business bright green. For 22 years, the lion’s share of Cactus Jack’s jetsam has been floating away on the recycling stream, finding new ways to be useful while reducing the need for new resources. For that matter, most of what comes in the back door is made with recycled materials, and since 2007, Cactus Jack’s has been running entirely on Xcel wind power offsets.
As president of the Evergreen Downtown Business Association, last year Megan launched a recycling and composting program for all downtown businesses. A bustling commercial district like Main Street puts out acres of expendables, and Megan is developing systems to help downtown business owners dispose of their discards more discreetly, and often at unexpected savings.
“Evergreen wants to be good at recycling.”
That’s an impressive recycling resume by any standard, and represents substantial steps on Evergreen’s road to sustainability. But Megan holds to a standard that keeps on rising and, as of January 1 of this year, she’s the intrepid owner of, and most enthusiastic advocate for, the only mountain-area recycling center between Idaho Springs and Bailey. If buying the recycling facility in North Evergreen was a bold move, it’s one Megan believes the community will support.
“Evergreen wants to be good at recycling,” Megan says. “I don’t think it’s an education issue—I think people just need to know where they can do it.”
For a long time, local Greens—the Mitchells included—have been doing it at the EDS Waste Solutions recycling center tucked away behind King Soopers in The Marketplace at Bergen Park. It’s a convenient enough location, but not particularly visible, nor particularly well known. Megan’s decision to buy the place didn’t happen overnight, and it wasn’t purely altruistic. Every Monday, for the last 15 years, she’s been loading up a week’s worth of Cactus Jack’s compostables for a trip to the EDS recycling center.
“It’s exhausting,” she says. “I talked with them for years about some kind of pick-up service, but it just never happened.” Even so, they kept talking, and eventually the conversation turned to handing the keys over to Megan, which EDS did on New Year’s Day. “It’s kind of selfish, I guess,” Megan grins, “but it’s also important for the community and I’ll continue to pass it on.”
Flying under the Foothills Recycling Center banner, the facility retains all of the equipment necessary to its mission, plus a more colorful asset that local recyclers have come to know very well.
“I have one employee, Stephen, and he’s fairly notorious,” Megan laughs. “Every time you go there you get a joke—usually a bad one.” Stephen knows his business, though, and his new boss, impervious to even the most outrageous groaner, hopes to soon bring on additional staff. “I’d like to hire more people from Evergreen,” she says.
“By adding extra hands and some savvy efficiencies, Megan plans to make going Green easier for recyclers both committed and casual.”
By adding extra hands and some savvy efficiencies, Megan plans to make going Green easier for recyclers both committed and casual. “Just call me, and I will personally come to your business, do an audit, and help you do it right.” Also, with direct control over outgoing materials, she can make sure that every newspaper, water bottle and potato peel ends up somewhere besides the landfill.
“I’m not calling out the haulers,” she explains. “Most of them do a great job. But when you send recycling to some of these larger companies, you can’t always be sure it will be recycled.”
If Megan’s goal is to help Evergreen up its own recycling game, Evergreen can help her in that good purpose by having a care how its recyclables arrive at Foothills Recycling. The center can accept most kinds of paper, with firm proscriptions placed on Christmas wrapping paper and greeting cards, which are lousy with contaminants, and anything shredded, which is nearly impossible to process in scale.
Plastics of the #1 and #2 species are welcome, categories including, but not limited to, plastic milk cartons and plastic pop bottles. Evergreen should be aware that the machinery processing those items tend to gag on plastic bottle caps, and they should be removed prior to submission.
Foothills Recycling cheerfully accepts glass of every size, shape and color. Again, lids, corks, and anything else not glass should be assiduously excluded before delivery. A contamination level of only 3 percent is sufficient to prevent recycling.
Compost should be food waste only. Please no yard waste or compost paper. And, of course, aluminum is gratefully accepted. “Aluminum is infinitely recyclable,” points out Megan, admiringly.
By following those simple requests, Megan is confident that Evergreen will shortly become a shining Green example for other communities to follow.
“So many people want this. Up until now I’d give us a C-minus for recycling, but I think that a year from now we can get that up to a B. We have potential.”
For that matter, so does Foothills Recycling. Although still learning the ropes of large-scale public recycling, Megan is nevertheless guardedly optimistic that she can one day up her game even more by opening recycling centers elsewhere among these jade hills and emerald forests, realizing the Green potential of places like Kittredge and Conifer.
“Anything in life starts as one,” she says, simply. “This is my life’s journey. I can’t stop now.”
To learn more, visit foothillsrecycling.com
