Colorado’s new program will make recycling free for everyone

Colorado will have a statewide free recycling program that will increase recycling access for hundreds of thousands of people.

The bill creating the Producer Responsibility Program passed in Colorado two years ago, but this spring, state lawmakers gave it the green light to move forward for implementation through a Joint Budget Action Committee approval.

The program will require companies that package their products in single-use materials — such as food, beverages and other items — to pay a fee, which will pay for everyone statewide who has access to curbside trash collection. also receive a free curbside recycling pickup.

“The fee is assessed for each piece of packaging that is used and this fee is used for two things: it is used to send a signal to the manufacturer, to use less packaging and the other part is to support our recycling system, which we. pay now,” says Henry Stiles with Environment Colorado, one of the advocacy organizations that helped lead the charge to create the program.

According to a needs assessment study for the program, released in March, approximately 500,000 additional households will receive recycling in the municipality, and 100,000 – 200,000 additional households will receive service in other areas.

In addition, the program will create free recycling for people living in multi-family housing – such as condos and apartment buildings – who also do not currently have access to convenient in-home recycling.

People who live in HOA communities that currently cover the costs of trash and recycling pickup through HOA fees to homeowners are hoping to get a discount, as it will be one less cost for the HOA to cover.

Programs like this have been running successfully for years in several European countries and in Canada.

In Colorado, Stiles says he hopes it will help keep future plastic and recyclable waste out of our state’s waterways.

“I’m very hopeful that it’s going to do some damage,” Stiles said. “I was just part of a river cleanup on the Platte River about a month ago. We pulled 600 pounds of trash out of the Platte River. Most of it was plastic, and that stuff breaks down into what we call microplastics… pieces of plastic that are about five millimeters We’re finding them in all our streams and wildlife ingest them and it causes all kinds of problems.

But some companies in the food industry have criticized laws like this one, saying European models won’t work in the U.S. the product. on consumers.

Stiles said that hasn’t been the case in other areas.

“What we’ve seen with this is not so much, because there are so many packages sent, this fee will be very small, and there are some studies that show it has no effect at all,” Stiles said. “Right now, you’re paying local government taxes and fees to pay for this recycling, and you’re not going to pay that anymore. So basically, it’s shifting the cost from those local governments to the manufacturers.”

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials will be responsible for implementing the new program. A spokesperson for CDPHE told CBS News Colorado in a written statement that they will “regularly study the cost impacts to the consumer, to ensure that producers shoulder the financial burden.”

“The Statewide Producer Responsibility Recycling Program will provide a convenient, cost-effective, statewide, free and equitable recycling system for all residents. The program is expected to increase recycling rates for paper and packaging from 25% to 58% by 2035 and expand recycling at the border, at no cost to residents or the state,” said the CDPHE spokesperson. “The Producer Responsibility Program will ensure that manufacturers of covered materials, which include consumer packaging and paper products, will finance all components of the system without passing the potential costs of this program on to residents.”

Some people who live and work in more rural areas are excited about the potential the new program will bring.

Megan Mitchell, who owns Cactus Jack’s Saloon and Grill in Evergreen, has been looking for better recycling options for several years.

She says that since 2007, her restaurant has made recycling a priority, despite how difficult and inconvenient it is in her hometown.

She and her employees spend ten hours a week sorting through the recycling and taking it to the nearest recycling center, where she spends $200 a month to dispose of it.

“It makes me a little angry that I have to spend my day like this,” Mitchell said as she sorted through the recycling outside her restaurant. “I didn’t choose for them to send me everything that comes with it. I just bought that product. They are very much a stakeholder in this and responsible. I’ve done my part all along, I think they should do theirs too.”

Right now, program leaders are ironing out the details of how to best implement the law.

Suzanne Jones, former Boulder mayor and head of an environmental nonprofit called Eco-cycle, says her organization will be working on key parts of the implementation process for the next year and a half, including preserving the choice of community.

Jones says the program introduces a concept called “ecomodulation,” which ensures that brands set the price per packaging unit in a way that incentivizes the reduction of single-use packaging.

For example, polystyrene packaging cannot be recycled, so the program will charge consumers a higher fee if they use it in their packaging.

She also told CBS News Colorado in a phone interview that Ecocycle is also working with program leaders to put measures in place to ensure that “materials collected for recycling are actually recycled and made into new products in a responsible way. … people have faith in the system and we are achieving turnover.”

Jones says residents should experience free recycling by January 2026, while small businesses should feel the benefits within the next two years.

According to CDPHE, a proposed plan for the statewide recycling system is expected by February 1, 2025, with CDPHE and the Producer Responsibility Advisory Board having to approve the plan before it can be finally implemented.

To track the progress of the Program, find information about monthly Advisory Board meetings, and learn about future stakeholder engagement opportunities, visit the Producer Responsibility Program website.