{"id":2452797,"date":"2020-01-01T23:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T06:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318534"},"modified":"2020-01-02T08:37:36","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T15:37:36","slug":"nonprofit-electronics-recycler-has-support-but-no-space-in-roaring-fork-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/nonprofit-electronics-recycler-has-support-but-no-space-in-roaring-fork-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit electronics recycler has support but no space in Roaring Fork Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Workers disassemble electronics at a Blue Star Recyclers plant. The nonprofit organization, which hires and trains disabled workers, operates in three Colorado cities and aims to expand to the Roaring Fork Valley.<\/strong>
Blue Star Recyclers\/courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Bill Morris thought all the boxes were checked when he looked into expanding his nonprofit electronics recycling business into the Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n

What he discovered was a shortage of warehouse space, something he believes is partially due to the marijuana industry\u2019s rapid growth.<\/p>\n

Morris is founder of Blue Star Recyclers, which opened its first facility in Colorado Springs in 2009, then expanded to Denver in 2014 and Boulder in 2016. It recently opened in the Chicago area. The company specializes in hiring workers who are disabled, mainly people on the autism spectrum.<\/p>\n

He figures the business is a classic win-win situation \u2014 with extra wins thrown in. People who are typically overlooked in the workforce gain meaningful employment, governments save on social welfare costs, consumers are provided with a place to recycle mountains of cellphones, laptops, televisions, monitors, small appliances and household electronics that get discarded every year, and landfills don\u2019t fill as fast.<\/p>\n

Morris started looking at the Roaring Fork Valley and Interstate 70 corridor in Garfield and Eagle counties as a potential expansion market because the area is growing and residents tend to make an effort to recycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been looked at as a hippy-dippy thing to do,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s just good business sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 100,000 people in Boulder recycle 1 million pounds of electronics with Blue Star per year. He figures the area from Aspen to Glenwood Springs and from Vail to Rifle would produce a similar recycling rate per capita.<\/p>\n

The Rotary Clubs of the region learned of Blue Star\u2019s ambitions and seven of them combined to provide financial backing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody remembers when the Rotary Clubs have come together on a project,\u201d said Debbie Wilde, who will become president of the Glenwood Springs Rotary Club next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was exciting on a lot of fronts,\u201d Wilde said of the Blue Star concept, pointing to the ecological, social and economic benefits. \u201cAll of those things made it not a (big) risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rotary Clubs that participated are Aspen, Snowmass Village, Carbondale, Mount Sopris, Glenwood, Sunset Rotary of Glenwood Springs and Rifle.<\/p>\n

While efforts are made to recycle some electronics, such as at the Pitkin County Landfill, the assessment was Blue Star could do it most effectively. Pitkin County Landfill awarded a contract to Blue Star. The city of Aspen soon followed with its own pledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our valley, it\u2019s a missing part,\u201d Wilde said. \u201cThat is kind of our bugaboo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morris figured he would initially employ six workers in the Roaring Fork Valley. He said he has made arrangement to work with Roaring Fork High School to teach new skills to students who are autistic. He noted that Ascendigo, a nonprofit that works with people on the autism spectrum, is also based in Carbondale, so there are opportunities to add workers should operations expand in the Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n

He stressed that his nonprofit isn\u2019t hiring people out of sympathy or philanthropy. People with autism thrive in settings where there is a repetitive task and a procedure to follow, he said. Blue Star employs 40 disabled people in Colorado with 28 of them on the autism spectrum. The company has found their absenteeism rate to be extremely low and worker safety to be high, he said.<\/p>\n

Blue Star stresses on its website that it considers its workers \u201cdisAbled,\u201d with the emphasis on abled.<\/p>\n

Additional grants for Blue Star\u2019s expansion into the Roaring Fork Valley pledged from Pitkin County Healthy Communities, the Western Colorado Community Foundation and the Daniels Fund in addition to Rotary.<\/p>\n

Morris said he had \u201c$200,000 in the bank\u201d to fund a startup in the Roaring Fork Valley. He just needed a warehouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started shopping about a year ago and came close a couple of times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when he learned that trends that have molded large metro markets are also sweeping the Roaring Fork Valley. Warehouse space is at a premium, in large part because marijuana growers have flooded the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarijuana growers in 2015 went out and purchased (or leased) just about every square foot of warehouse space,\u201d Morris said. \u201cThey pay cash.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s driven up rents and sales prices. Blue Star cannot compete when space becomes available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a nonprofit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There is a chance Pitkin County will have space in a building come available in Carbondale in 2021, according to Morris. At a minimum, Blue Star needs space for the next year. He said the company could live with 1,500 square feet of working space, as long as it came with loading docks suitable for tractor-trailers that would be picking up electronics on a regular basis. He is either looking for space as a sole tenant or to share with another operator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe frustrating part is we just can\u2019t find a building,\u201d Morris said. \u201cWhat I\u2019m really praying for is something to pop up in Carbondale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone with information on available warehouse space in the Carbondale area can contact Morris at bill@bluestarrecyclers.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wilde said she hopes Blue Star can locate space before Rotary\u2019s next fiscal year begins in July. The ability to carry over the funding from the seven clubs and the district to the next fiscal year is uncertain, she said.<\/p>\n

She is optimistic that greater knowledge of Blue Star\u2019s needs for a warehouse can shake loose some options.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been out there in the public,\u201d Wilde said.<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Workers disassemble electronics at a Blue Star Recyclers plant. The nonprofit organization, which hires and trains disabled workers, operates in three Colorado cities and aims to expand to the Roaring Fork Valley.Blue Star Recyclers\/courtesy photo Bill Morris thought all the boxes were checked when he looked into expanding his nonprofit electronics recycling business into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 23:09:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2452810,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452797\/revisions\/2452810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}