RREO Grant Success!

Wait? What? A Recycling Grant? $437,000, that’s what!

The Colorado Department of Health and Environment has a super innovative program to assist companies, like Timber Age, who divert waste from landfills in one way or the other. The program, known as the Resource Recovery Economic Opportunity (RREO) is funded by fees we all pay when sending loads of garbage to commercial landfills. These fees in turn give companies access to grant funding through the RREO program to grow re-use, recycling, upcycling and general waste diversion within the company. Here is the link to the RREO site.

What does this mean for Timber Age you ask? Well, check this out! We are a 2021 RREO Grant recipient! It really is a huge deal for us. We have been awarded nearly $437,000 to build out a larger scale CLT manufacturing plant in our region. You can find the press release here.

But how do recycling, waste diversion and CLT production come together? Wood waste is actually one of the largest waste streams in Colorado. The waste wood is primarily from the construction industry but is also includes whole trees that occasionally end up in a landfill because there is no other perceived use. Yard waste and clean wood waste make up nearly 11% of landfill materials. Construction and demolition debris make up another 8% annually.

The RREO Grant Timber Age received will be used in the very near term to increase our production capacity of ponderosa pine based CLT but it will also pave the way for us to experiment with how other wood wastes and construction debris may be incorporated into durable, long lasting building products.

The goal? Keep it out of a landfill, put it in a building that will last decades if not a century or more and make it part of the carbon sequestration equation!