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Recycling Rate Increases: Putting $ Where There Is Passion

I started Green Girl Recycling eighteen years ago based upon the principle that if I could fill a need at an affordable price and deliver extraordinary personalized service to an underserviced area – I’d succeed. I’ve followed the business model of adding more customers to the bottom line and filling in gaps instead of always raising prices to offset costs. Customers have asked me for years why I haven’t raised prices and the truth is, I felt that because we got paid a little on the back end from Boulder County for recycling materials, I could keep pricing really low and customers extremely happy.


The recycling world since 2009 has been one heck of a rollercoaster. Recycling markets crashed with Wall Street and haven’t come back to pre-crisis pricing at all. In fact, everything has become more expensive: cost of living, fuel, electricity, employees, insurance, etc. And that awesome ‘back-end’ or ‘kick-back’ bonus, if you will, from selling recycling just hasn’t rebounded. And then, in January of this year, Waste Management (WM) who holds the contract to run the material recovery facility (MRF) in Larimer County began charging us $12.00/ton to take our single-stream recycling. The cost in just four months has more than tripled to now $33.00/ton for WM to receive, process and sell our recycling – at a profit I might add. It’s maddening!


What most of our customers don’t realize is that now Eco-Cycle who holds the contract to run the Boulder County MRF is now also following suit and charging haulers to take, process and sell recyclables!!! Yes, we are being charged everywhere in the state now to ‘tip’ or drop-off recycling. These facilities have to run at a profit and the profits are so slim, they are now charging haulers to bring them materials. Yeah…ICK! What a massive setback in our industry. What is to keep a trash hauler from saying, “The heck with this; if I have to pay to get rid of trash & recycling – why separate it? Why pay one place and then another to handle my materials? I’ll just throw it all away and save myself time, money and employee labor.” YES – this is happening.


I hope my customers actually read this letter and pay attention to the fact that by working with us, they are still recycling 100% of the material they spent time separating from the landfill pile. We really care. We really recycle everything we haul and love to send reports each year to everyone outlining how well they recycled. By supporting our small business, you are supporting a truly green effort-a woman-owned and -run recycling company committed to making recycling stay ‘sexy’ and ‘important’ in these ever changing times.


In July we raised customer prices to remain competitive and operational. Instead of gouging any size or location of customer, we are doing a basic $2.00 raise across the board to customers in Boulder County on a monthly or per pickup price scale. If you pay $27 a month for recycling – your new bill will be just $29, if we charge you $22.50 per pickup the new price will be $24.50 per pickup. We are confident this minor increase will help keep us in the black and allow us to remain the green force and positive movement to help as many people as possible make better decisions with their end-of-use items and containers.


If you have any questions about single-stream recycling, electronics items and pricing, paper shredding for 25¢/lb. or the new cost for recycling service pickups – we want to hear from you!! Email Bridget anytime at greengirlrecycling@yahoo.com, follow us on Twitter at GreenBTJ or on Facebook at GreenGirlRecycling. We have always said that ‘We Make Recycling Easy’ because the truth is…We DO Make Recycling Easy! Thank you for thinking green and putting your money where there is passion.


Greenest,

Bridget Johnson

A.K.A.: The Green Girl

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