Local nonprofits ReSource, which collects and resells building and furnishing materials, and Eco-Cycle, which operates Boulder’s Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials (CHaRM), will be closed Sundays starting on December 20.

“We’re moving around our hours to better accommodate the needs of our customers”

The two nonprofits, which are co-located on Recycle Row at 6400 Arapahoe Rd., said the facilities were underutilized by the public on Sundays, prompting the closure.

The CHaRM and ReSource yard will continue to be open Monday-Saturday from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. ReSource will also extend the hours it accepts donations from 4:00 pm until 5:00 pm.

“We’re moving around our hours to better accommodate the needs of our customers,” said ReSource Senior Manager Brandon Hill. “We’ve been listening to the calls from businesses and residents to extend the hours we were open for donations, and to do that we’ve had to borrow staff time from when demand was lowest – on Sundays.”

To process donated materials, ReSource previously stopped accepting donations area an hour before the rest of the facility closed for the day. As a result, some donors had to turn away and come back the next day to drop off materials. With the new hours, there will no longer be any confusion or inconvenience.

“We experimented with being open on Sundays when we moved here two years ago,” said Dan Matsch, CHaRM Operations Director. “We wanted to give our customers options,” he added. But Sundays, it turns out, are very slow days at the CHaRM, a finding that was confirmed by Eco-Cycle and City of Boulder surveys. “It turned out to be a money loser for us,” Matsch said.

Both ReSource and CHaRM offer regional residents easy, low-cost options for reusing and recycling items that have too much value to throw away. CHaRM recycles electronics (now banned from landfills in Colorado), hard-to-recycle plastics, appliances, concrete, Styrofoam, and a surprising array of other materials.

ReSource accepts donations of usable building materials, cabinets, doors, counters, windows, tools, landscaping materials, and other items for reuse in homes and businesses. Their deconstruction service and free pick-up provides a steady stream of architectural salvage products that are re-purposed by builders, craftsmen, artists, makers, and Do-It-Yourselfers because of their way-below-market cost.

“We encourage people to get their recycling done Monday-Saturday and then relax or go for a hike on Sunday,” said Matsch. “That’s what my staff is going to do.”

Find out more about ReSource and its parent organization the Center for ReSource Conservation on the web.  Click here for more about Eco-Cycle and the CHaRM.