The Circular Economy Development Center (CEDC) is a program of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment designed and operated by Circular Colorado.
Vartega: Closing the Loop on Carbon Fiber Waste
Carbon fiber is prized for its strength-to-weight ratio and for fueling innovation in aerospace, automotive, and sporting goods. However, its production is energy-intensive, and post-product waste and end-of-life products often end up in landfills. This is where Vartega steps in.
Vartega specializes in recycling carbon fiber composites, recovering valuable fiber from waste streams, and reintroducing it into the supply chain. By facilitating the use of recycled materials that maintain performance characteristics, Vartega not only reduces material costs but also diverts tons of high-performance waste from disposal.
In the circular economy, resources are kept in use for as long as possible. Vartega’s recycling process transforms scrap carbon fiber into a reusable feedstock for new products—from automotive parts to consumer goods. This contributes to new products with lower embodied carbon and supports manufacturers seeking sustainable materials without sacrificing performance.
Carbon fiber recycling at scale represents a shift away from a linear “take-make-dispose” model. Companies like Vartega show how innovation can align profitability with sustainability, creating closed loops that conserve resources and accelerate the move toward a circular economy. Learn more about Vartega’s patented, recycled products.
Steamboat Springs: A Blueprint for Plastic Film Recycling Success
While many communities grapple with the challenges of recycling plastic film, Steamboat Springs has emerged as Colorado’s leading example of how to do it right. By forging powerful local partnerships and leveraging the Circular Transportation Network (CTN), this mountain town is setting a new standard for circular economy innovation.
The results speak for themselves: since the program’s launch in January 2025, Steamboat Springs has already diverted over 2,000 pounds of plastic film from landfills. This achievement is the direct result of a hybrid model designed to accommodate businesses of all sizes.
Many small to mid-sized businesses wanted to participate but lacked the storage space to meet the CTN’s minimum pickup threshold of six super sacks. To address this challenge, the CEDC worked with the Steamboat Resort, the City of Steamboat Springs, and the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council (YVSC) to develop a collaborative model. The partners established a centrally located, shared collection container at Steamboat Resort. Businesses that enroll in the CTN and complete a license agreement gain access to this hub. There, they can deposit, weigh, and log their contributions, ensuring accurate tracking of the collective impact.
Larger generators, like ACE Hardware and B&K Distributing, which regularly exceed the minimum threshold, schedule direct pickups at their own facilities.
By creatively addressing storage, a key barrier to participation, Steamboat Springs is helping to divert large volumes of plastic film from landfills and demonstrating how rural and mountain towns can effectively engage in circular economy solutions.
Construction and Demolition Waste: Driving Circularity at Scale
Colorado faces a mounting challenge with construction and demolition (C&D) waste. While deconstruction—carefully dismantling buildings to salvage materials—is always the preferred first option, it cannot address the sheer scale of waste generated across the state. To truly reduce landfill burdens, Colorado needs C&D recycling facilities. C&D recycling facilities can process vast volumes of concrete, wood, asphalt, and other debris that would otherwise end up in landfills. They provide the infrastructure to handle what deconstruction alone cannot, reducing what is sent to landfill and turning waste into valuable feedstock for new circular projects.
Denver’s recently passed Waste No More ordinance underscores the urgency. The ordinance requires construction and demolition projects to recycle or reuse materials instead of sending them directly to landfill. This policy sets a clear expectation—but without sufficient C&D recycling facilities, compliance will be difficult and costly. By investing in infrastructure now, Colorado can ensure that the ordinance succeeds, helping Denver become a model for sustainable construction nationwide.
The CEDC was created to build and strengthen end markets for recycled materials—but those end markets depend on a consistent, reliable feedstock. Establishing large-scale C&D recycling is essential to growing these end markets.
In short, deconstruction leads the way, but recycling facilities are the backbone of scaling solutions to Colorado’s C&D waste problem. With the right infrastructure in place, Colorado can divert millions of tons of waste from landfills, provide feedstock for growing industries, and take a decisive step toward a circular, sustainable built environment.
Recycling Polystyrene Packaging: Partnering with Industry to Drive Circularity
For years, Expanded Polystyrene (EPS)—the lightweight foam widely used in protective packaging—has posed a significant recycling challenge and contributed to waste stream issues across Colorado. Its bulky, low-density nature, consisting of about 98% air, makes it economically unviable for many municipal recycling programs, leading to excessive landfill volume.
To address this, Circular Colorado has launched an initiative in partnership with the CEDC and the Plastics Industry Association’s Polystyrene Recycling Alliance (PSRA). This project is designed to create a replicable and scalable model for EPS circularity. The comprehensive approach encompasses collection, densification, and reverse logistics to effectively return EPS to the manufacturing supply chain for use in new products.
By collaborating with municipalities, landfill operators, and leveraging the Circular Transportation Network (CTN), the project will establish pilot programs in select communities. Strategic placement of collection containers and on-site densifiers will mitigate the cost and space issues associated with transporting EPS. The proven financial viability of this model is the critical next step, paving the way for expansion across Colorado and providing a blueprint for PSRA to scale EPS recycling nationwide.
We look forward to announcing the selected pilot communities. Stay tuned for updates as we work to transform this long-standing waste challenge into a circular economy success story.
Webinar: The Textile Recycling Conundrum
Textile production is accelerating rapidly. Global fiber output has more than doubled since 2000 and is projected to rise another 45% by 2030. Yet nearly 85% of textiles still end up landfilled or incinerated, including over 200,000 tons each year in Colorado alone. While circularity offers a promising alternative model, system-level barriers continue to hinder progress.
Building on the foundational work of RRS’s End Market Opportunity Assessment, the Circular Economy Development Center (CEDC) mapped the circular textile value chain to show the necessary infrastructure, the challenges the system faces, and the opportunities that will enable circularity in Colorado and the surrounding region. The webinar will provide a supply-chain view of barriers to and opportunities for textile recycling in Colorado.