Grant Summaries

Capacity Building Grants

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 Mini 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.

Snapshot

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.