Larimer County Solid Waste Department - About Larimer County

Education
Education
The goal of the education program
is to provide information
in an accessible manner to
the general public. We are the
only waste facility in northeastern
Colorado that offers tours of
several facilities all on one site:
the recycling center, landfill,
household hazardous waste facility
and education center. Many
tour groups routinely come from
the Denver area, and even as far
away as Nebraska, to visit our facilities.
Visitors are often elementary
students, but range from
preschoolers to senior citizens,
from church groups to scout
groups, and from groups of 120
people to small families.
Because the number of visitors
has increased greatly since the
addition of the education center,
this year staff looked at ways to
keep visitors safe as they walk
among the facilities. Commercial
drivers that come to the landfill
and recycling center don’t expect
to see groups of students walking
around the area. Thus, we have
decided to add crosswalks, signs
and specific waiting areas to ensure
the safety of all involved.
Partnerships are key to the success
of the Garbage Garage education
center, as well. Several
teachers and local groups make
the Garbage Garage a yearly stop.
Without the help of two dedicated
volunteers, Wally Jacobsen
and Wanda Mayberry, tours
would not run as smoothly. We
hope to expand the volunteer
program in 2005, and we are also
hiring part-time help to assist in
giving tours of our facilities.
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In 2004, about 2,100
people of all ages visited
the education center and/
or our other facilities. The
number of tours scheduled
was 116, and a spring
open house at the
Garbage Garage was a
great success.
The education program continues
to partner with the Cities
of Fort Collins and Loveland in
outreach opportunities. This year,
we put together a comprehensive
advertising package that will include
two television commercials
and four 30-minute talk shows
about specific waste-related topics.
The “Jars and Bottles and
Cans” commercial, with a Wizard
of Oz theme, aired locally on several
cable channels in the fall and
continues to be aired on Fort
Collins’s Channel 27. It can also
be viewed on the Larimer County
and City of Fort Collins Web sites.
The first talk show, an overview
of recycling, was produced in the
fall also. The show is aired periodically
on local cable channels.
The Recyclone Times, a biannual
newsletter distributed in
most major newspapers throughout
the county, is another continuing
example of a successful
partnership among the county
and the Cities of Fort Collins and
Loveland. The newsletter is a hit
with the general public; after distribution,
Cheryl Kolus, the
department’s environmental educator,
typically gets several calls
from individuals and groups requesting
extra copies. Another
newsletter, The Landfill Update, is
also distributed two to three times
a year to a subscriber list of more
than 500.
Information booths at events like
the Holistic Arts Fair in Fort
Collins and at Colorado State
University’s America Recycles
Day celebration help educate the
public about waste and recycling
issues.
T he education program not
only showcases our services,
but also encourages waste reduction
and reuse to decrease the
amount of trash dumped in the
landfill or recycled, since even recycling
consumes resources that
reducing and reusing would not.