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Winter Park Resort offers recycling to its 1,500 employees

by Stephanie Miller
Sky-Hi Daily News
Byron Hetzler/Sky-Hi Daily News
ALL | Sky-Hi Daily News

Employees at Winter Park Resort no longer need to drive to the Grand County Landfill to recycle.

The ski area is expanding its recycling program by allowing employees to use the recycling bins at the mountain. For a $20 fee, part-time and full-time employees can bring in their plastics, cardboard and bottles, and drop them off at the Valley Recycles bins near the Grounds Shop.

“I think it’s going to take off. People are excited about it,” said Hal Newberry, director of base operations.



Things have come a long way since the late ’80s, Newberry said, when the only recycling accepted at the resort was aluminum and cardboard, which they had to truck down to Denver.

Now the resort uses Connexion, a program that has expanded the recycling program, as well as implement other environmental incentives such as energy reduction and renewable resources.



“It took us a while to get it organized,” Newberry admitted. “But I think it’s needed. Colorado lags behind in recycling, and we gotta step it up.”

Fraser and Winter Park lost its recycling bins last fall, when Valley Recycles pulled the bins due to financial issues. Since then, Grand County has been working toward setting up a recycling program for the entire county, but progress is slow. To date, the closest public recycling bins for those who live in the east end of the county is the Grand County Landfill outside of Granby.

Newberry said he hopes other businesses in Winter Park and Fraser get involved by offering their employees recycling as well.

“We hope that other businesses follow suit, and put in recycle bins that their employees can use. Until we can get a regulation recycling center and program in the county, I think we as businesses should take the lead in the interim, and hopefully move toward that.”

In the future ” depending how things go ” Newberry hopes to expand the program even further by accepting electronics and used oil. But, for now, the resort is working to get its current new program working smoothly.

“It’ll be a learning curve until we can figure it out,” he said.

Winter Park Resort has roughly 1,500 to 1,600 employees ” a major reason why the ski area decided to expand the recycling program.

“There were a lot of us employees affected,” said Communications Manager Darcy Morse. “It was a way for the resort to help out with the community.”


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