In a development that will substantially enhance Grand Junction’s recycling abilities, the city has been awarded a grant to build a new and extensive sorting facility.
The grant of around $9.8 million comes from a group called the Colorado Circular Communities Enterprise. That non-profit, established last summer, is tasked with improving waste processing systems across the state.
The planned material recovery facility will be designed to specifically serve rural and underserved areas in western Colorado and will increase the amount of recyclable material that can later be used in manufacturing.
The grant was announced after the Colorado Circular Communities Enterprise group spent upwards of seven months surveying Grand Junction’s recycling needs, while also determining financial viability and sustainability matters, among other issues.
The Grand Junction effort, remarked Tyler Bandemer, chairman of the group, in a statement, “will connect Western slope residents to recycling and give us an opportunity to keep these materials in circulation.”
The group’s emphasis has been on reducing the number of materials normally sent to landfills and using them in what has been described as a “fully sustainable ecosystem.” In so doing, such materials can be reused for other purposes.
Earlier this year, the Colorado Circular Communities Enterprise awarded a $11.2 million grant to a company in Aurora to turn discarded tires, that are usually buried and burned, into new use for highway barriers.
September 19, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
