Sure, you could spend a lot of money to ski in Breckenridge, Colo. Or you could hit a free sledding hill there using a free sled from a community "sled shed," then head over to Breck Create, a "makers" community center, and use high density polyethylene from worn-out sleds to make carabiners, earrings, bowls or other items through its weekly Injection 101 class.
Breck Create began collecting large HDPE items, including broken sleds, in the summer of 2022, grinding them up and converting them into material for Injection 101 in 2022. Since then, it has diverted 5,063 pounds of plastic from the landfill, with plastic sleds making up 55 percent of the collected items, Brittany Anas writes in The Denver Post.
"The community can come in and let their imagination run wild and be part of the solution," Drea Edwards, arts education manager at Breck Create, told the Post.
The city of Breckenridge, at the base of the Breckenridge Ski Resort, has several designated free sledding hills, including two that are groomed multiple times per week. While visitors can buy or rent sleds, the city's Sled Shed at Runway Hill allows riders to borrow sleds for no cost, although there's no guarantee how many will be there.