COMMERCE CITY, COLO. (Dec. 6, 12:40 p.m. ET) — While America’s politicians continue to hash out the looming “fiscal cliff,” at least discarded Denver-area political campaign signs will serve a purpose.
Commerce City-based Alpine Waste & Recycling, in cooperation with several Denver metro area cities, diverted approximately 2.5 tons of political yard signs from being thrown into local landfills this election season, according to a news release.
The company’s annual Yard Sign Recycling Campaign program began in 2007 through Alpine’s recycling division, Altogether Recycling, to prevent an estimated 100,000-plus yard signs from entering the local landfills.
This year, large roll-off containers were available throughout various cities. Altogether Recycling transported the yard signs to its recycling plant in Commerce City where it packaged them for delivery to processing plants. The signs will be converted into plastic pellets for use in consumer goods, such as lawn chairs, trash cans, toys and other heavy-plastic items.
The bulk of political yard signs are corrugated polypropylene or high density polyethylene film.
“Though the market for this product is relatively small compared with other materials that we process at Altogether, we determined that our municipal partners shared our enthusiasm for keeping the yard signs out of the landfill and made our efforts worthwhile,” Brent Hildebrand, vice president of recycling for Alpine, said in a statement.
