About

Cary Bush started moving recycling from Creede in 2007 and set up recycle-creede as a non-profit corporation. We have our 501(c)(3) non profit status, so you can write off any donations to recycle-creede on your federal taxes! 

Thanks to many, many volunteers and donors. The time and money involved is frequently overwhelming, however we continue to accept recyclable materials and move them to facilities in the San Luis Valley, Boulder and Denver where they are processed and become new products. 

Thanks for recycling! 

Recycle-Creede, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation offering a drop-off center for recyclables serving the Upper Rio Grande communities. 

The "S" sense of Recycling: Sort, Sort, Sort.

Recycle-Creede needs help sorting our accepted recycled materials. 

In large metropolitan areas, people are paid to work for solid waste management and recycling organizations and Single Stream Recycling has become a well known and convenient way of recycling. 

Unfortunately, we are all volunteers. So it seems obvious that there would be much less work for our dedicated volunteers if everyone who deposited recyclables at Recycle-Creede sorted their items into the bins provided. Very large signs are posted for the obvious categories of Cardboard, Containers, Paper and Paperboard, Aluminum CANS, Steel Cans & Scrap Metal. 

We are developing more educational materials to give a more comprehensive education even if no volunteers are on-site at the same time you are. In the meantime, please read the signs. Plastic bags are a “no-no”. To recycle them please take them on your next grocery excursion to the Valley. We don’t have the room to keep and move them for you, and we would also have to take them to Walmart, City Market or Safeway. 

Cardboard (corrugated) goes into the chicken wire corral on the left (north) when you enter the building. Scrap metal and steel cans also go on the left side when you walk in (this can also include metal lids for jars and bottles). Aluminum CANS (not foil, not steel cans) should be placed between the door and the garage door (west side of warehouse). The Paper and Paperboard (magazines, newspaper, office paper, junk mail ...) all go into bins on the right/south side of the warehouse. Next to the paper comes the Container area: basically most plastics (#1 - #7), juice and milk cartons, EMPTY aerosol cans. Please PLEASE PLEASE rinse your containers and remove and dispose of the plastic lids. Rinsing is so important because mold, insects and rodents are not are friends. You will be a very dear friend if you rinse! It doesn’t have to take a lot of water, just some, and then when there is no lid, it dries out in no time. Then there is the last sign-posted area which is for Glass. Colors of glass can be mixed. Once again, rinse, no lids or corks. 

Behind the "public" area of the warehouse is the storage area. Some small signs are posted to give guidance, but in general, when a bin is totally full (the less air space the better) a lid should be put on it and move it to the correct storage area. If you are nice enough to do this, please put an empty container in its place. Then when we load trailers it is WAY easier to figure out how much we’ve got of each material and where to start. Any volunteer would be happy to help you learn how to help us.