The Dolores Town Board advanced a new trash and recycling service after voting Monday to draft an agreement with Cortez.
Under the contract, Cortez would provide weekly trash pickup and separated recycling for mixed cardboard, plastics No. 1 and No. 2, aluminum and tin/steel metals for $31.15 per household each month. Glass would not be accepted.
A completed contract will be presented to both local governments for approval in early 2026.
The rate is $2 higher than Cortez’s standard residential rate but matches the amount officials shared in October’s proposal.
Residents who want the service must call Cortez to enroll, request a trash bin and recycling container, and cancel their current trash service next year. Town officials said recyclables must be sorted into paper bags by category and cleaned.
So far, 68 households and some businesses have signed up, Town Manager Leigh Reeves said. The initial target was more than 100 households, but that minimum is no longer required, Reeves said.
“No one’s obligated. If you don’t want curbside recycling, you can still go with Countryside, Bruin Waste Management, whoever you want, but you’re not going to necessarily get recycling from them,” Reeves said.
The town’s main recycling option – Four Corners Recycling Initiative’s drop-off bins on 12th Street – will disappear after December. That prompted the town to consider ways to keep recycling available.
The change stems from a shift in funding from tonnage-based payments at drop-off sites to a state program that pays haulers directly, making the nonprofit’s service unnecessary.
In October, Four Corners Recycling Initiative Board President Casey Simpson said, “That’s OK, because Four Corners Recycling was an initiative to really build out both the availability and culture of recycling in the Four Corners Region.”
Since its start, the nonprofit has diverted more than 2,185.5 tons of material from landfills, he said.
Simpson said the organization plans to stay in contact with local partners, the county and Dolores and Mancos school districts to help with the transition to new recycling programs.
Under town ordinance, Reeves said Cortez will provide bear-resistant locks for trash containers.
Bear activity was high across Montezuma County this fall, mirroring statewide trends that made 2025 an above-average year for human-bear encounters. Colorado Parks and Wildlife attributes the spike to drought and poor natural food availability in the Southwest, which lured bears into residential areas and toward trash containers – sometimes even locked ones, town officials said.
At Monday’s meeting, Sheriff Steve Nowlin said he believes the last bear frequenting the north end of town has settled into hibernation.
