A new statewide program the city of Durango is pursuing could make residential recycling fees a thing of the past.
Durango Sustainability Manager Marty Pool said he’s cautiously optimistic the program could reduce recycling fees for residents, who pay about $10.50 to $14.50 per month.
The Producer Responsibility program puts the onus on producers of recyclable materials – glass bottles, aluminum cans and cardboard boxes, for example – to fund proper disposal of such materials.
Producers are charged a fee for each recyclable item they produce. The fee is deposited in a statewide fund that is then distributed to public and private recycling service providers across the state.
Pool likened the program to core charges for lead-acid batteries. Sellers and producers of lead-acid batteries pay a deposit into a statewide management fund to help ensure proper disposal of batteries.
“This is now being extended into traditional recycling,” he said.
He said eligible recyclables include boxes, paper, soup cans – anything that is placed in traditional blue recycling bins.
“When a company brings an aluminum can into this world, there is an argument to be made that they have a responsibility to see that can through its life cycle,” Pool said. “If they don’t pay into a system, it’s on the consumers or the municipalities to fund the waste management to (dispose of) that thing that they introduced into our community.”
Pool said in an interview the program aims to bring recycling services up to par with garbage collection in communities across the state, increasing recycling while reducing recycling fees.
Durango is ahead of the curve on that front, although recycling rates around the state are not a high bar to clear, he said.
“Durango is actually pretty unique for a community of our size and rural location,” he said. “... We already have that parity between trash and recycling service for residents in our community.”
The city’s residential monthly recycling fees are $7.95 for 60-gallon bins and $11.89 for 90-gallon bins, plus a $2.69 surcharge.
Pool said the surcharge is in place to adjust to market conditions. The city earns some revenue from its recycling program, but that’s dependent on the materials collected.
The Extended Producer Responsibility program could eliminate those fees partially or entirely, Pool said, although he is hesitant to make specific promises before paperwork with the state is finalized.
The city has formally expressed interest in the program to fund collection costs, drop-off center costs and sustainability education and outreach efforts through his office – all activities the program provides funding for on paper.
Now, the city is waiting for detailed contract language outlining timelines, budgetary impacts, the city’s requirements, City Council’s involvement and other administrative elements, he said.
“It appears that a large portion of our recycling service operations, including collections in the drop-off center and our education outreach efforts, appear to qualify as eligible expenses,” he said “We just don’t know the details of that.”
Composting survey
Durango Sustainability Manager Marty Pool said the state’s Producer Responsibility program would potentially create funding for sustainability programs aimed at waste reduction, resource conservation and other measures.
Composting is one such sustainability measure the program considers.
The city of Durango is releasing a composting survey to residents on Wednesday, Pool said.
City Council directed the city manager and staff members to investigate composting options last year. Pool said the city applied a state technical assistance grant to researching options and seeking feedback from residents.
“One of the last big pieces of our community engagement on that is a survey about composting and organic waste management,” he said.
Assuming the city enrolls in the program, Pool said the first thing residents will notice is a reduction on their utility bills. Long-term, a number of opportunities could be unlocked if residents are willing to pay what they would in recycling fees into other endeavors, such as improved electronics recycling, expanded organic waste services or environmental stewardship in other areas, he said.
Ultimately, he said, it would be up to the community and City Council to determine what to do.
All in all, the environmental impact in Durango is likely to be small, at least for the first few years of the program, Pool said. But looking at the state as a whole, the impact will be significant.
“It’s going to have a profound effect on our statewide recycling numbers,” he said.
The Producer Responsibility program in state House Bill 22-1355 was signed into law in 2022. Although the program has required a lot of planning and coordination between the state, producers of recycling materials, and public and private recycling service providers, it is building momentum for rollout this year.
The state and the Circular Action Alliance, a national nonprofit dedicated to implementing extended producer responsibility laws, will administer the fund. The CAA will begin implementing the program by June 9.
cburney@durangoherald.com
