What Curaçao Taught Me About Recycling (and Why Colorado Is So Lucky)

Last week I was in Curaçao celebrating my mom’s 80th birthday with my entire family. Seven adults in one house, endless sunshine, and water so blue it almost doesn’t look real.

One morning while snorkeling, I spotted something that didn’t belong in that beautiful water.

Plastic bags and glass bottles!

Without even thinking about it, I dove down and pulled it all out.

Old habits die hard. When you’ve spent 27 years running Green Girl Recycling, your brain is always scanning for ways to keep materials out of the landfill… or in this case, the ocean.

But the more time I spent on the island, the more I noticed something deeper.

In many places on Curaçao, recycling infrastructure simply doesn’t exist the way it does here. (One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to actually go to the local recycling drop-off, dump or collection point.) This trip was all about family, so I did my best to check out the area we stayed (Jan Theil) and here there was a plastic bottle and aluminum collection; but I didn't get a change to verify exactly where it all went for baling or processing.

While the island itself is breathtakingly beautiful, the systems to capture recyclable materials just aren’t there yet. And that realization made me come home with a huge sense of gratitude for where I live and desire to help others with better systems in the future.

A Little Word Called “Dushi”

While we were there, we kept seeing colorful signs and statues around the island that said DUSHI.

If you’ve ever been to Curaçao, you know the word. It’s part of the local Papiamentu language and it means something like sweet, lovely, wonderful, or beloved. People use it to describe things that make life beautiful.

A place can be dushi.Food can be dushi.A person can be dushi.

And as I stood next to that big colorful DUSHI statue, I found myself thinking about something unexpected:

Recycling systems can be dushi too.

Not because they’re flashy or glamorous, but because when they work well, they protect the places we love.

Colorado Is Incredibly Lucky

Here on the Front Range of Colorado, we have something truly special: a network of recycling and diversion systems that actually work.

Through partnerships between cities, counties, nonprofits, and private companies, we have outlets for an incredible range of materials.

Paper becomes new paper products.Metals are melted and reused.Electronics are dismantled and valuable materials recovered.Mattresses are broken down and their components reused.

It’s not perfect, but compared to much of the world, it’s remarkable.

And honestly?

That system is pretty dushi.

The Power of a Local Recycling Ecosystem

One of the biggest lessons from Curaçao was this: recycling only works when there is an entire ecosystem supporting it.

Here on Colorado’s Front Range, we’re incredibly fortunate to have a network of organizations, processors, reuse centers, and specialty recyclers working together to keep valuable materials out of the landfill.

Organizations like Eco-Cycle, DreamBooks, Springback Colorado, and the Boulder County Recycling Center (MRF) play huge roles in processing and diverting materials.

Across the Front Range, many other incredible partners help make diversion possible (small quick list):

• Eco-Cycle CHaRM (Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials)

• Resource Central – building material reuse

• Boulder County HHW - batteries, paint, hazardous waste

• Springback Colorado – mattr

  ess recycling

• METech Recycling – TV recycling

• Boulder Recycled Aggregate - concrete recycling

• Momentum Recycling – glass recycling

• PaintCare Colorado – paint recycling

• Ridwell – specialty recycling streams

• Revamped Recycling – difficult plastics

• Full Circle Electronics – responsible electronics recycling

• Goodwill and local reuse programs – textiles and household goods

When all of these organizations work together, something remarkable happens:

Items that would otherwise be trash become resources again.

That’s what a circular economy looks like.

And it’s something many parts of the world—including places like Curaçao—simply don’t have yet.

Recycling Is a Team Sport

Recycling isn’t just about putting something in a blue bin.

It’s about having an entire community of collectors, processors, reuse centers, and innovators ready to give those materials a second life.

At Green Girl Recycling, we’re proud to be one piece of that system. We provide residential and commercial recycling services throughout Boulder, Larimer, and Weld Counties, helping households and businesses divert materials that might otherwise end up in the landfill.

Our services include:

♻️ Single-stream recycling pickup for homes and businesses

🔌 Electronics recycling — if it has a plug or a battery, we can recycle it

📄 Secure paper shredding with materials sent directly to paper mills

🛏 Mattress recycling through partnerships with Springback Colorado

🔩 Scrap metal recycling

📦 Commercial cardboard diversion and baling

🌱 Compost pickup with in the City of Boulder

🧺 Hard-to-recycle item programs connecting customers to the right outlets

You can explore a full list of accepted materials here: https://www.greengirlrecycling.com/hard-to-recycle-items

We All Win When We Work Together

One of the things I love most about the recycling industry here in Colorado is that collaboration is common.

Yes, there are many companies doing this work. Some are technically competitors.

But at the end of the day, we’re all working toward the same goal:

diverting as much material from the landfill as possible.

At Green Girl Recycling, we feel confident working alongside other recyclers, nonprofits, processors, and reuse organizations because we know something important:

When we work together, everyone wins.

The environment wins. The community wins & future generations win.

Diversion is bigger than any single company.

It’s a shared mission.

And when the system works together the way it does here on the Front Range… it’s something pretty beautiful.

You might even say it’s dushi.

A Moment in the Ocean

I keep thinking back to that moment snorkeling in Curaçao when I reached down and picked glass bottles and that piece of plastic out of the water.

It was a tiny act in a very big ocean.

But it reminded me of something powerful.

Systems matter.

When communities build the right systems, materials get captured before they ever reach the ocean. Resources stay in circulation. Waste becomes opportunity.

Here on the Front Range, we are incredibly fortunate to live in a place where those systems exist.

And every time someone chooses to recycle instead of throw something away, they are helping keep those systems strong.

So the next time you toss something into a recycling bin, remember:

That small action is part of a much bigger story.

One that keeps materials out of landfills… and hopefully out of oceans too.

And that kind of system?

That’s something truly DUSHI!

♻️

— Bridget

Founder, Green Girl Recycling