Recycling and composting at CDPHE

Sorting your waste on CDPHE campus

Recycling tips

• All recycling should be empty, free of food, and mostly clean.
• Dirty, wet, or greasy cardboard or paper should be placed in the landfill bins.
• Recyclable items should be roughly the size of your palm or larger, anything smaller should be placed in the landfill.
• When in doubt, throw it out!
   

Recycling metals

• Aluminum cans and foil (crumpled in a ball the size of a fist or larger), pie tins.
• Steel cans i.e. tuna cans, beans, soup, etc.
• Metal lids larger than the palm of your hand.

Recycling glass

• Glass bottles, jars.
• Remove metal lids.

Recycling paper

• Office paper, newspapers, magazines, envelopes with windows.
• Use shred boxes near print stations or CORE rooms that contain sensitive information. This shredded paper can be recycled separately through their vendor.
• Paper coffee cups and paper coffee cup sleeves.
• Milk cartons and aseptic/tetra pak containers (chicken broth, rice milk, etc).

Recycling cardboard and paperboard

• Cereal boxes, clean pizza boxes.
• Flatten all cardboard and paperboard boxes.

Recycling plastic: bottles, jugs, jars, tubs and containers

• Do not flatten.
• Attach plastic screw tops back on the container.

Compost

• Food scraps:
  • vegetable and fruit scraps (no produce stickers).
  • coffee grounds.
  • meat.
  • cheese.
  • bread.
  • bones.
  • fruit pits.
  • egg shells.
• CDPHE provided paper towels.
• Yard and plant trimmings i.e. flower bouquets.
• Find more guidance from scraps.com.
• When in doubt, throw it out (in landfill bins)!

Landfill

• Any organics like food or yard scraps when compost is not available.
• Food service ware (compostable or otherwise):
  • plates.
  • bowls.
  • silverware.
  • cups.
  • straws.
  • dressing containers.
  • coffee cup lids.
• Greasy pizza boxes.
• Paper towels, napkins, coffee filters, etc.
• Wipes, baby wipes.
• Chewing gum.
• Flexible plastics:
  • plastic bags wrappers, chip bags, etc.
  • bubble wrap or shipping pouches.
• Other miscellaneous plastics:
  • #7 PLA “compostable” plastics.
  • packing peanuts.
  • Styrofoam, expanded polystyrene.
• Shredded paper.
• Paper ream wrappers.

Hard-to-recycle special bins

• Battery boxes:
  • Located in all CORE rooms.
  • Be sure to tape terminals on required batteries and bag any corroded batteries separately.
• Writing instruments:
  • Located in all CORE rooms.
  • Collection of pens and markers.