(CUSTER COUNTY, Colo.) — Custer County locals have discovered a creative way to beautify their community while promoting recycling. The Trailer Art Project, a year-long initiative by High Country Recycling, tapped the artistic talents of volunteers from across the community to paint murals on horse trailers and recycling bins.

The rural community has a recycling center at the landfill and two drop points for recycling in town, and 13 old horse trailers are used to transport cardboard, aluminum, steel, and paper from the dropoffs to the center. However, the trailers were covered in rust and in need of sprucing up, so the Trailer Art Project was developed to beautify them, funded by grants from Rawlings Foundation and Wet Mountain Valley Rotary.

The project engaged the Future Farmers of America class to sand, repair, and paint a base coat of blue paint to prepare the trailers for the murals, which were painted by small groups of volunteers, including Cub and Boy Scouts, homeschooled kids, the high school art class, 4H and a group of young Amish kids.

A visiting artist who had just graduated from art school painted one trailer, a local mural artist painted another, and a third was part of the Kids Council Family Fun Day, where kids and grown-ups could put their handprints on the trailer. Local artist, Kim Faiella Townsend was on hand to help with trailers painted by kids, lending her creative talent to inspire them to paint.

The project was expanded to add murals to recycling barrels used at local events and placed on Main Street. One more weekend is planned on Sept. 14 and 15 to paint two or three trailers before wrapping up the season.