The Garbage Garage Education Center is Larimer County’s hands-on center about trash, recycling and composting, at 5887 S. Taft Hill Road in Fort Collins. The county describes its activities as free and for visitors of all ages. A scheduled 30-minute field trip includes an introduction, a guided walk through the displays, and lessons on the landfill, the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) and composting.
Drop-in visitors are welcome during open hours, Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tours must be scheduled in advance, and the county recommends scheduling ahead for any group larger than five.
A note for homeschool families: the county’s pages do not mention homeschool groups by name, but the visit request form asks how many people are in your group or family, so a single family or a co-op can ask for a time.
Know before you go
- Garbage Garage Education Center, 5887 S. Taft Hill Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526. Free.
- Open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Schedule a tour through the county’s visit request page, at 970-498-5772 or solidwasteeducation@larimer.org.
- Pair it with a backyard look at nature’s own clean-up crew: the roly-poly facts page from the picture book Curio Power and the Roly-Polies explains that roly-polies are crustaceans whose favorite feast is decomposed veggies and leaves.
- More free field trips nearby: Larimer County’s naturalist-led field trips and CSU Environmental Learning Center.
Disclosure: Curio Power and the Roly-Polies is a Holland Health Marketing client. Read its Colorado Local profile.
More like this: Fort Collins · Free Field Trips · STEM · Homeschool
