Frequently Asked Questions

• Saves money on your water bill
• Saves drinking water
• Reduces pollutants and stormwater runoff into the Laramie River
• Plants prefer the acidity and fewer minerals in rainwater 

Ran Barrel Instruction

The Wyoming State Engineers office is in charge of water rights in the state. At this time the state does not have a permit process and there is no City of Laramie ordinance preventing the use of rain barrels. Citizens are able to catch storm water for personal use without regulation. 

It is best to empty rain barrels every one to two weeks. This allows the barrels to refill during each storm and prevents insects from laying eggs in the water.

Other ways to prevent mosquitoes:

• Use a mesh. DO NOT collect it as standing water
• Clean the barrel regularly
• Check for cracks and leaks
• Add a tablespoon of dish soap after each storm
• Add a mosquito dunk

Sheridan: glass is recycled. Costs are subsidized with additional general fund tax revenue. 

Casper: Distance to glass markets and the weight of glass make it expensive to recycle. While some bottlers purchase recycled glass, these manufacturers are outside of the state of Wyoming. The cost to ship the glass to market is more than the city would receive for payment. Casper discontinued accepting glass for reuse or a daily cover in the animal disposal area of the landfill. The volume of glass was ineffective at preventing scavenger animals from removing animals from the disposal area. 

Cheyenne, Rock Springs, Rawlins – no glass recycling currently offered. 

Fort Collins, CO - accepts glass at a drop-off location plus requires private haulers to offer recycling services. The glass collected at the drop-off location is taken to Rocky Mountain Bottling Co. Rates vary by private vendor, no municipal services are offered. 

Loveland, CO - accepts glass at 6 drop-off locations and then it is taken to Rocky Mountain Bottling Co. Costs are assessed to rate payers. Nationwide glass recycling is an issue because of the cost to transport and process the glass. The manufacturing companies have to spend more time and energy to sort glass that is contaminated with other garbage. In order to offset those costs, the manufacturing companies do not provide a high rebate for glass. Since the rebate for glass is so low, communities cannot offset the travel costs to transport their glass recycling. It is becoming more economically feasible nationwide for communities to dispose of their glass in the landfill.

As of 8/7/2021 the City of Laramie is accepting glass bottles and jars free of charge at the recycling center located at the Laramie Landfill.  Please remove any caps, lids and corks.  There is no need to separate the glass by color.  Please do not try to recycle glass in the single stream recycling.  If you do put glass in the blue lidded container it will be treated as trash. 

Public meetings have been held to provide information, and gather citizen input. To date rate payer cost increases have been a contentious proposition. Any changes need support from citizens and elected officials to incorporate into the fiscal budget.

Recycling: The City of Laramie has partnered with Momentum Recycling in Denver, CO.  Glass bottles and jars can be taken to the recycling center located at the Laramie landfill.  This glass will be used to make “cullet” which can be used for many purposes, including making new bottle and jars. 

The city has explored a program similar to what was previously provided by the ARK. One option is hauling the glass directly to Rocky Mountain Bottle Co. The second option is hauling it to Fort Collins which would reduce transportation costs, but with a lower rebate. The graphic below shows the total cost per year depending on the tonnage of glass transported. The second value is the cost to residents per month for the service.

 As of 8/7/2021 the City of Laramie is accepting glass bottles and jars free of charge at the recycling center located at the Laramie Landfill.  Please remove any caps, lids and corks.  There is no need to separate the glass by color.  Please do not try to recycle glass in the single stream recycling.  If you do put glass in the blue lidded container it will be treated as trash.

The operation is too pricey. Glass recycling has to be transported to the Rocky Mountain Bottling plant in Colorado because it is the only facility with a bottle-to-bottle operation. The cost to ARK to haul the glass to the Rocky Mountain Bottling Co. was $85/ton. The rebate was roughly $50/ton. ARK was losing $35/ton which equaled about $15,000/year. Rebate rates vary based on demand and other cyclical industry factors, the lower the rebate, the higher the cost to the municipality or business. The City of Laramie’s solid waste and recycling programs operate in a break even enterprise accounting approach, so any additional costs are passed on to resident rate payers.