Grant Summaries
Developing Circularity Across Colorado
Colorado Circular Communities (C3) grants align with the program's Strategic Plan and focus on supporting circularity across Colorado. This is not a comprehensive list of all grant projects currently under consideration or contract with C3. Some projects listed are completed, others remain active.
All tiers of C3 grants are competitive. Not all applications submitted result in a grant award.
Mini Grants
Mini Grant awards are up to $50,000 for projects that can be completed quickly, such as the purchase of equipment.
ITAD Electronics Recyclers, LLC
Project Title: Warehouse and Operations Expansion
Date Awarded: 1/6/2026
Category: Recycling, Reuse/Repair/Recovery, Collection/Hauling
Amount Awarded: $50,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Silver Cliff, Salida, Buena Vista, and Fairplay communities
As the only certified electronics recycling company in Southern Colorado, ITAD Electronics Recyclers provides pickup and drop-off services as well as community recycling drives. ITAD currently holds low-to-zero cost drives in the Silver Cliff, Salida, Buena Vista, and Fairplay communities. Grant funds will be used to purchase equipment to support ITAD’s business expansion, and increase current diversion rates.
Purchases: Electric forklift with battery and charger, pallet jack, dock plate
Compost Queen
Project Title: City of Fort Collins Food Waste Pilot Program
Date Awarded: 12/5/2025
Category: Composting
Amount Awarded: $50,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Fort Collins
Compost Queen is an established community-driven alternative to landfilling organic material and the only operational, permitted facility to accept and divert food waste in Northern Colorado. They have partnered with the City of Fort Collins’ Food Waste Program to expand organics recycling and collect data for the city to properly evaluate a future organics facility that will extend the life of the new landfill. Funding will support the purchase of a truck, which will allow Compost Queen to expand their collection to add 600 residential households and 20 commercial accounts to their customer base.
Purchases: Truck
City of Steamboat Springs
Project Title: Haymaker Golf Course Recycling Project
Date Awarded: 11/20/2025
Category: Recycling
Amount Awarded: $15,870
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: City of Steamboat Springs
The project will enhance recycling infrastructure at the Haymaker Golf Course, a municipal facility serving a rural resort community in Northwest Colorado. Grant funding will support the purchase and installation of dual recycling and trash receptacles throughout the course, making proper waste disposal more convenient for patrons. Expanding recycling access will decrease the volume of solid waste sent to landfills and strengthen the city’s ongoing waste reduction and sustainability efforts.
Purchases: Dual purpose recycling and trash receptacles
Town of Limon
Project Title: Additional Containers for Cardboard Recycling
Date Awarded: 12/1/2025
Category: Recycling
Amount Awarded: $8,364
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Lincoln County
This project will assist the town in their long-term goal of reducing cardboard in the landfill by purchasing bins to collect and store cardboard at schools to help increase recycling participation.
Purchases: Recycling bins
EcoAction Partners
Project Title: Plastic Film Recycling Program
Date Awarded: 10/1/2025
Category: Recycling, Collection/Hauling, Community Engagement/Outreach/Education
Amount Awarded: $16,519
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: San Miguel and Ouray counties
This project establishes a central storage and aggregation point for businesses in San Miguel and Ouray counties to deposit plastic film. Most businesses do not have adequate space to store plastic film. This site serves as a much needed central storage hub, preventing the material from being sent to the landfill when storage space runs out. The plastic film will be collected and picked up by the Colorado Circular Transportation Network (CTN), a material collection program that provides no-cost hauling services to rural communities. All materials collected will become feedstock for new products, thus contributing to the circular economy in Colorado.
Purchases: Shipping container, outreach materials, communication coordination
Green for Green
Project Title: Statewide Collection Vehicle Expansion
Date Awarded: 11/25/2025
Category: Collection/Hauling, Recycling
Amount Awarded: $43,600
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Statewide
This project diverts valuable materials found in cannabis packaging, such as plastic, metal, glass, and fiberboard, from landfills. Funding will support the purchase of a truck capable of transferring and hauling cannabis packaging for Green for Green to expand their fleet, support their operations, and reduce waste.
Purchases: Truck
TRU Community Care
Project Title: TRU Thriftshop, New Truck Purchase
Date Awarded: 9/3/2025
Category: Distribution, Collection/Hauling, Reuse/Repair/Recovery
Amount Awarded: $50,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Boulder County, Front Range
This project diverts valuable materials, such as furniture, clothing, and household items, from landfills. Funding will support the purchase of a truck capable of transferring goods for Tru Community Care to support their operations, keep usable goods in circulation, and reduce waste.
Purchases: Truck
City of Glenwood Springs
Project Title: The City of Glenwood Springs Aggregate Recycling Improvement Project
Date Awarded: 7/7/2025
Category: Recycling, Community Engagement/Outreach/Education
Amount Awarded: $39,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: City of Glenwood Springs, Garfield County
This project improves the City of Glenwood Spring’s landfill aggregate recycling program. The program recycles items such as concrete, porcelain, masonry, and crushable rock for public sale, keeping this material out of the landfill. The market for recycled aggregate materials remains new and underdeveloped, limiting consistent demand. Grant funds will support equipment for aggregate processing, upgrades to the aggregate recycling collection area, and marketing and outreach to target residents and businesses to build the aggregate recycling program.
Purchases: Rock bucket, rubber barriers, outreach/marketing
GutItGroup Demolition
Project Title: Equipment Acquirement To Expand Sustainability Practices
Date Awarded: 7/7/2025
Category: Remanufacturing/Upcycling, Reuse/Repair/Recovery, Collection/hauling
Amount Awarded: $50,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Denver Metro, Front Range
This project salvages reusable items such as cabinetry, fixtures, and metal components during demolition thereby diverting valuable materials from the landfill. Funding will support expansion of deconstruction services for Gut It Group Demolition’s transition from ad hoc recycling to a structured reuse and recovery workflow.
Purchases: Trailer, truck, truck topper, material recovery equipment
iRecycleHere
Project Title: Community Outreach Campaign for Secure Data Destruction
Date Awarded: 4/9/2025
Category: Recycling, Collection/Hauling
Amount Awarded: $50,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Denver Metro
This project will collect and process electronic waste for reuse, repair, repurpose, and recycling, as well as increasing community participation through outreach and education. Grant funds will support equipment purchases for data sanitization and destruction, reducing the public’s concern about data safety when disposing e-waste.
Purchases: Hard drive and multimedia shredder, data sanitation system, heavy duty carts
Don’t Trash Glass, LLC
Project Title: Expanding a Circular Story for Glass in the Denver Metro Area
Date Awarded: 9/24/2025
Category: Community Outreach/Engagement/Education, Collection/Hauling, Recycling
Amount Awarded: $28,526
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Denver Metro, Denver County
Don’t Trash Glass provides internal and external containers for easy and safe collection of glass in both “front of house” and “back of house” operations within the service industry. Don’t Trash Glass will purchase high-quality containers for collection and hauling to ensure program efficiency by decreasing contamination from the moment each glass bottle is discarded and help sustain operations of the program long-term. With the additional materials, Don’t Trash Glass aims to expand their program to new regions, with a goal to increase their market by 100 customers.
Purchases: Outdoor recycling containers, indoor recycling containers, multilingual educational materials and signage
The Toy, Game, and Puzzle Library (TGPL)
Project Title: Project Re-Play - Toy, Game, Puzzle Library Repair, Reuse, Re-Play Project
Date Awarded: 9/3/2025
Category: Reuse/Repair/Recovery, Distribution, Source Reduction
Amount Awarded: $24,500
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Fort Collins, Larimer County
Toys, games, and puzzles are difficult to recycle due to their mixed material therefore an estimated 80% of these items end up in landfills. The Toy, Game, and Puzzle Library (TGPL) collects items for reuse, repair, and repurpose for redistribution. Their operation and distribution space is donated and grant funding will support infrastructure improvement and equipment purchases that will allow for increased donation, repair, and distribution.
Purchases: Construction services, electrical, shelving and storage, computer system and kiosk island, work tables, workstations, 3D printer materials, soldering station, sewing station, die-cutting tools, repair station upgrades, signage, outreach/publicity
Renegade Plastics
Project Title: Developing an End Market for Polypropylene PCR in Colorado
Date Awarded: 10/1/2025
Category: Recycling
Amount Awarded: $50,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Area of State and Counties: Denver Metro
Renegade Plastic’s product offers a recyclable, non-toxic alternative suitable for many applications currently reliant on vinyl fabrics. Grant funding will support the purchase of an accelerated weathering chamber to evaluate the long-term durability of fabrics containing post-consumer recycled (PCR) content. Evaluation will verify performance standards and identify optimal PCR percentages, representing the final validation step before integrating polypropylene PCR into products manufactured at Renegade Plastic’s Colorado pilot production line.
Purchases: Accelerated weathering chamber
Town of Firestone
Project Title: Firestone Tree Recycling Program Expansion
Date Awarded: 6/30/2025
Category: Recycling, Source Reduction
Amount Awarded: $50,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Weld County
This project focuses on diverting organic material from landfills through the Town of Firestone’s urban forestry program by improving the management and reuse of locally generated wood waste. Grant funding will be used to purchase a high-capacity woodchipper, allowing the town to efficiently process tree debris into woodchips. The resulting material will be applied within town parks and made available to residents for reuse, extending the value of organic resources that would otherwise be discarded.
Purchases: High-capacity wood chipper
Alpine Roots
Project Title: Compost Delivery Fulfillment and Scaling
Date Awarded: 6/30/25
Category: Composting
Amount Awarded: $47,334
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Larimer County, Front Range
Alpine Roots will expand production of vermicompost, worm castings, and living soil blends to support sustainable agriculture along the Front Range. Grant funding will purchase equipment to scale operations, automate key processes, improve delivery efficiency, and ensure consistent, high-quality products.
Purchases: Delivery truck, dump trailer, hand pallet truck, soil mixer, concrete blocks, IBC totes (intermediate bulk containers)
Compass Community Collaborative School
Project Title: The Plastic Cycle: A Middle School Venture
Date Awarded: 4/28/2025
Category: Community Engagement/Outreach/Education
Amount Awarded: $10,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Larimer County
Compass Community Collaborative will create a course for middle school students focused on the environmental impact of plastic (polyethylene terephthalate or PET) and ways to recycle and reuse plastic generated in their community. Grant funds will be used to purchase supplies to set up a small-scale recycling space in the school’s design lab, allowing students to engage in hands-on learning and practical application.
Purchases: PET water bottle recycling supplies
Lucky to Ride
Project Title: Expanding Youth Access to the Outdoor with Sustainable Transportation
Date Awarded: 4/10/2025
Category: Community Engagement/Outreach/Education, Reuse/Repair/Recovery, Collection/Hauling
Amount Awarded: $50,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Denver Metro
Lucky to Ride will collect, refurbish, and distribute donated bicycles to extend their lifespan and keep them in use. Grant funds will be used to purchase a van, enabling the organization to expand its bicycle recycling efforts, divert waste from landfills, and promote sustainable transportation. The refurbished bicycles will support programming that provides youth from underserved communities with access to safe, reliable bikes and opportunities for active, healthy living.
Purchases: Van
Yuma County Landfill
Project Title: Upgrading cardboard and metal recycling program
Date Awarded: 5/31/2025
Category: Recycling, Collection/Hauling
Amount Awarded: $50,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Yuma County
The Yuma County Landfill and recycling facility has been operating since 1982. Grant funds will support equipment purchases to increase recycling capacity and protect employees from having to clean materials by hand. This project will ensure that Yuma County Landfill can effectively provide recycling services in their rural county.
Purchases: Trailers, electromagnet, mobile trash vacuum, bailing wire
YMCA of the Rockies
Project Title: Yes We Can - Recycling at YMCA of the Rockies
Date Awarded: 4/22/2025
Category: Recycling
Amount Awarded: $49,442
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Estes Park and Granby
This project will increase access to recycling at YMCA of the Rockies locations in Estes Park and Granby. Grant funds will purchase recycling bins made from recycled materials and featuring clear labeling to place in high traffic areas across each location to maximize the volume of materials that are collected.
Purchases: Recycling bins
RockyTech, Ltd.
Project Title: Closing the Loop: Circular Approaches to Managing 3D Printing Filament Waste in Colorado
Date Awarded: 8/11/2025
Category: Community Engagement/Outreach/Education, Reuse/Repair/Recovery, Recycling
Amount Awarded: $50,000
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Boulder
RockyTech is a sustainable plastic innovation company that champions sustainability in plastics from initial feedstock to responsible end-of-life solutions. This project will collect plastic waste and recycle it for reuse in 3D printing and other local manufacturing applications.
Purchases: Plastic separation and processing equipment, bins and signage for community partners, outreach materials
Town of Ophir
Project Title: Replace broken composting equipment and purchase a biochar kiln
Date Awarded: 4/22/2025
Category: Composting/anaerobic digestion/biochar
Amount Awarded: $34,465
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: San Miguel County
The Town of Ophir is a small, rural municipality that has shown a commitment to composting despite broken equipment. Grant funds will purchase an in-vessel composter and biochar kiln to divert residential waste from landfills, and create compost and biochar to use as soil amendments in the town. By replacing broken equipment and purchasing a kiln, the Town of Ophir will produce approximately 15,000 pounds of valuable compost annually and reduce weekly trash pick-up by six yards.
Purchases: In-vessel composter, biochar kiln
Impact Grants
Impact Grants are the middle tier of funding, with awards between $50,000 and $500,000 for projects contributing to a circular economy beyond the project period.
City of Alamosa
Project Title: New Recycling Baler
Date Awarded: 12/16/2025
Category: Recycling
Amount Awarded: $174,000
Timeframe: 18 months
Area of State and Counties: City of Alamosa, San Luis Valley
This project promotes the circular economy through the purchase of a new baler to process recyclable materials collected at the Alamosa Recycling Center. The recycling center is the only free recycling facility in the San Luis Valley, an 8,000-square-mile, six-county region with a population of approximately 50,000. The purchase of the new baler will ensure continued access and increased capacity to recycling services in the region.
Purchases: Baler and installation costs
Town of Silverton
Project Title: Silverton/San Juan Transfer Station Upgrades
Date Awarded: 08/14/2025
Category: Collection/Hauling, Community Engagement/Outreach/Education, Recycling
Amount Awarded: $74,734.99
Timeframe: 24 months
Region: Town of Silverton, San Juan County
This project supports increasing and improving waste diversion efforts at the Silverton/San Juan transfer station. The Town of Silverton is a remote mountain community. Limited accessibility, especially during severe weather, and an influx of tourists during summer months present unique challenges for waste diversion efforts. Silverton currently offers single stream and hard-to-recycle material recycling but does not have oversight from a dedicated staff member to manage the transfer station. This leads to illegal dumping, unbilled payments, and contamination. Grant funding will support a part-time position to manage materials in addition to funding critical improvements to increase resource recovery, reduce waste, support financial accountability, and promote community awareness.
Purchases: Internet infrastructure, security cameras, recycling containers, storage shed, pickup truck, Point of Sale (POS) system, portable tablet, waste manager salary
r.World
Project Title: Enabling Reuse at Scale Through Wash Cycle Automation
Date Awarded: 6/30/2025
Category: Reuse
Amount Awarded: $250,000
Timeframe: 18 months
Area of State and Counties: Front Range
This project focuses on decreasing single-use item waste across sports stadiums, music and entertainment venues, festivals, and convention centers throughout Colorado. r.World is a reuse company that supports the circular economy through durable, reusable cups and containers paired with the logistics required to make reuse practical at large venues. Guests interact with r.World products in the same manner as disposable items, then return them to clearly marked collection bins at each site. The company retrieves the used wares, transports them to centralized facilities for washing, sanitizing, quality control, and repackaging, then prepares them for reuse. Grant funding will address current operational challenges within the cup-washing system, where capacity and cost limitations slow expansion. Investment in a rackless conveyor dishwasher will automate and combine several processing steps into one streamlined operation, allowing r.World to expand its reuse services more efficiently and support long-term growth across the Front Range.
Purchases: High capacity dishwasher
Resource Central
Project Title: Increasing Reuse and Reducing Waste Through Community Outreach for All
Date Awarded: 8/20/2025
Category: Community Engagement and Outreach
Amount Awarded: $154,720.34
Timeframe: 18 months
Region: Boulder County
This project focuses on expanding conservation and reuse opportunities for communities that have been historically underrepresented. Resource Central is a nonprofit organization committed to making conservation accessible, engaging thousands of households each year in programs that reduce waste, save water, and conserve energy. Grant funding will strengthen reuse participation through several initiatives, including a no-questions-asked, needs-based discount program offering a 50% reduction on building materials for repairs and home improvements to low-income and underrepresented residents. The engagement program is expected to reach approximately 10,000 individuals.
Purchases: Outreach coordinator personal services, multilingual print materials, outreach event promotional materials, branded pop-up tent, folding tables, folding chairs, branded table skirts, event booth display, custom outdoor message board, Apple MacBook Pro, website translation service, document and signage translation services, social media promotions for outreach events, needs-based discounted building materials, tabling fees for outreach events
Vindeket Foods
Project Title: Root Bound Build Out: Phase 3
Date Awarded: 7/2/2025
Category: Food Rescue and Recovery
Amount Awarded: $187,257
Timeframe: 18 months
Region: Larimer County and Weld counties
This project reduces food waste in Colorado while diverting surplus food from landfills and redistributing it to community members in Larimer and Weld counties. Grant funding will support essential infrastructure and staffing for Vindeket Foods, allowing for expanded operating hours, increased food storage capacity, and increased community outreach. These improvements will enhance the organization’s ability to recover and distribute nutritious food while supporting environmental sustainability and community well-being.
Purchases: Walk-in display freezer, cardboard baler, walk-in-display cooler, executive director salary, operations manager salary, part-time staff wages, fringe benefits for full-time staff, utilities, truck maintenance and repairs, truck fuel
Green Girl Recycling
Project Title: Peaks to Pavement: Expanding Mountain Recycling with a New Chassis
Date Awarded: 5/12/2025
Category: Recycling
Amount Awarded: $75,877
Timeframe: 6 months
Region: Boulder County, Larimer County
Grant funds will support the purchase of a new, fuel efficient truck, which will allow Green Girl Recycling to double outreach and divert an additional 190 tons of residential and 225 tons of commercial recycling within hard-to-reach mountain communities.
Purchases: Truck
Capacity Building Grants
Capacity Building Grants are the highest tier of funding, and these projects are expected to provide Colorado with significant advances in waste diversion and aversion. Capacity Building Grant projects build a larger framework for building a circular economy by focusing on the full lifecycle of the targeted materials. Applications for this level are by invitation only.
City of Grand Junction
Project Title: Regional Materials Recovery Facility Project
Date Awarded: 8/28/2025
Category: Recycling
Amount Awarded: $9,821,984.48
Timeframe: 36 months
Region: Grand Junction
This project supports the expansion of a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Grand Junction, Colorado. The project will advance Colorado’s circular economy by significantly expanding recycling infrastructure, reducing landfill dependence, and increasing regional material recovery rates on the Western Slope. The project will address existing service gaps in rural and underserved communities, reduce greenhouse gas emissions through local processing, and support long-term sustainability goals under the Producer Responsibility Program for Statewide Recycling Act.
Design for Recycle
Project Title: Project Do Better
Category: Recycling
Date Awarded: 5/26/2025
Amount Awarded: $1,529,485.95
Timeframe: 22 months
Region: Pueblo County
This project will assist Design for Recycle to provide critical recycling solutions in Southeastern Colorado as the only processing facility in the area. Grant funding will support critical improvements and increase Design for Recycle’s capacity to handle up to ten times the volume of materials currently processed.
Pretred
Category: Recycling
Date Awarded: 2/14/2025
Amount Awarded: $11,260,000
Timeframe: 45 months
Region: Arapahoe County
This project advances circularity in Colorado by supporting Pretred in establishing an in-state facility to process waste tires into crumb rubber for industrial rubber barriers. By bringing tire processing into Colorado, the project creates the state’s first fully realized circular waste tire model, reducing transportation costs, emissions, and reliance on out-of-state facilities. The project aims to divert waste tires from landfills and burning while reducing environmental impacts associated with concrete production, including greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. Grant funding will support the purchase of tire-processing and ancillary equipment needed to produce crumb rubber efficiently.