Summer 2026 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the Public Works Resource Conservation Division Newsletter, Summer 2026 Edition.

This quarterly newsletter is written by Chandra Valenza, the Community Outreach Manager with the Resource Conservation Division (RCD).

 I’m so happy to be in your inbox.  

This newsletter is intended to keep you up-to-date with RCD news and provide fun and helpful information and resources.

From left to right: Brennen Mack, Chandra Valenza, Cody Lillstrom, Todd Schollenberger, Michal Duffy, Billy Donovan, Manroop Cuccaro

Resource Conservation Division Highlight

Some of the RCD staff recently attended the annual Recycle Colorado Summit. The Summit is a two-and-a-half-day conference for those involved in all things recycling, reusing, repurposing, repairing, you get the idea. Every year, it’s held in a different city throughout the state; this year, it was held in Westminster.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Kelly Kandra Hughes, had a beautiful way of showing us how to live a life of flourishing and staying positive in a career field that can often be negative.
The Summit is always a wonderful time to connect with colleagues and learn some things that could be applied in Boulder County. A few takeaways from our team include:
• Accounting clerk Manroop was excited to attend some of the producer responsibility sessions, where she learned how to prepare rebate reports.
• Zero Waste Program Manager Michal learned about Glass Half Full, which is an organization that takes glass for recycling and creates sandbags for residents to protect their homes during flooding and coastline restoration. "This is such a cool example of taking ‘waste’ and turning it into a resource to address a local need.” commented Michal.
• Deputy Director Cody shared, "Environmental and sustainability work is hard and can be draining. It's important to take care of yourself. And, there were a lot of young professionals at the Summit: the future is bright."

Resource Highlight

I’d like to highlight a few materials that the Hazardous Materials Management Facility (HMMF) has been receiving: nitrous oxide canisters and vape devices.

Nicotine vapes have been accepted for a few years now with the installation of the VapeAware campaign. We are happy that folks are starting to understand that vape devices have a few components that make them harmful to the environment when improperly disposed of. You are always welcome to bring them directly to the HMMF, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows about the handy-dandy map of disposal options.

Unfortunately, many nitrous oxide canisters have been coming through the Boulder County Recycling Center (right next door). The sorters at the recycling center are removing these items and sending them to the HMMF for processing.

These canisters are hazardous in single-stream recycling because they can get punctured or crushed, causing many problems. These canisters are officially on the HMMF guidelines and the online A-Z guide.

This is a rather new material for our facility. If you have any ideas on how or where to message the proper disposal of this material, I’d love to hear them!

Educational Resource

Odds and Ends

• The messaging for the Producer Responsibility Program has begun! RecycleOn Colorado is the official state-wide education campaign for free recycling services funded by the producers of paper and packaging materials.
  • Get ready to see a lot more information about this program from your cities, towns, the state, and me!

• ASK: We want to highlight folks on social media with their stories about visiting the recycling center for the first time or the twentieth time in celebration of the Boulder County Recycling Center’s 25^th anniversary!
  • If you would like to be filmed telling your story, please email me at cvalenza@bouldercounty.gov. We’ll set up a time for a conversation that works for both of us. There may be some goodies as a token of appreciation.

Thank you for reading, and happy Summer!

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