Eco-cycle Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Recycling of materials from commercial and residential collections for the benefit of the community and the environment. Also, education of the community concerning the importance of recycling and composting, and zero waste as a climate solution. Processed and marketed over 50,000 tons of single-stream recyclable materials and millions of pounds of hard-to recycle materials from commercial and residential sectors; collected recyclables and organic waste from hundreds of boulder county businesses; conducted over 1,500 environmental education presentations impacting over 40,000 students and teachers in 115 schools in 3 public school districts; educated over 1,300 community members in benefits of recycling and composting and engaged them in local and statewide campaigns to pursue the adoption of policies to expand recycling access and endmarkets in Colorado. Eco-cycle also led coalition efforts to ensure the adoption of a detailed, effective implementation plan for Colorado's ground-breaking producer responsibility for packaging recycling program, slated to begin providing expanded access to recycling services in mid-2026. Eco-cycle also led successful efforts to pass legislation establishing a producer responsibility recycling program for small-and medium-format batteries. Eco-cycle continued to engage in zero waste policy discussions at the national level as co-founders of the alliance of mission based recyclers (ambr) and as members of the u.s. Plastics pact on how to rebuild and expand authentic recycling and reduce unnecessary single-use plastics. Eco-cycle launched two new schools into our green star schools program, now totaling 68 public schools, which implements integrated recycling and composting programming and helps schools divert as much as 67% of their waste. Eco-cycle connected schools, restaurants and small businesses that produce clean food scraps directly with local regenerative farmers as part of our new farmer first program; we provided training and technical support to help farmers use organic discards to make and use compost on eight farms, demonstrating the potential of a distributed community-based compost network that diverts organics from landfills, helps rebuild soils, and supports local food systems.we continued to successfully operate the boulder county recycling center as a model facility for mission-based recycling, while also increasing wages for sorters and equipment operators. Our center for hard-to-recycle materials worked with a growing number of cities and businesses to collect more hard-to-recycle material volumes and types (now up to 27 different materials) and to cultivate creative end market solutions. Our zero waste business & hauling department educated our commercial customers on reducing contamination in recycling and composting, creating a "clean compost" route and demonstrating that quality compost collections are possible with concerted education. Eco-cycle added a second electric truck for recycling collections to our fleet as part of our effort to demonstrate the efficacy of clean transportation options in the waste industry. We also evolved our polybag collection project from a successful pearl street mall pilot to a growing partnership with ecoenclose to scale up retail polybag collections and transportation to a remanufacturer to pursue circular bag-to-bag recycling. Eco-cycle incorporated equity into our work by continuing to raise the wage floor for the least-paid employees in the organization and expanding our board of directors to become a more representative and inclusive organization. We continued to integrate equity arguments about impacts of plastic production and disposal, chemical recycling, and landfill pollution on frontline communities into our campaign materials and worked in coalition with green latinos and other equity leaders to push for updated Colorado landfill methane regulations. Eco-cycle increased education programming and services at nine title 1 schools

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 91.9%; rating input score 92
• Program expense ratio: 89.6%; rating input score 90
• Fundraising efficiency: $9.61 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -2.4%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.77; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 6.7%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings