As Colorado strives to increase recycling rates statewide, Southwest Colorado governments want to develop opportunities to turn waste materials into marketable products.

As a first step, the Southwest Colorado Council of Governments plans a study of the waste streams in Archuleta, Montezuma and La Plata counties that will start next year, said Miriam Gillow-Wiles, executive director of the council. The council includes governments across the region, including the city of Cortez and towns of Dolores and Mancos.

The state-funded study will focus on hard-to-recycle materials such as glass and electronics to help determine whether there is enough waste to create products that could be sold locally, she said.

If products can be made with material that would otherwise end up in the landfill, it would help cut carbon emissions and benefit local landfills, Gillow-Wiles said.

“We can lengthen the time our landfills can exist,” she said.

For example, glass could be turned into aggregate similar to raw sand that can be used to put in new infrastructure, such as water and sewer lines, she said.

The state-funded study is expected to take a year, she said. She expects to receive about $30,000 from the Department of Local Affairs and about $45,000 from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Local markets for recyclables would help cut carbon produced from shipping recyclables long distances, she said.

For example, Montezuma County’s No. 1 plastics are shipped to Georgia, and the cardboard is sent to a town east of Grants, New Mexico, said Mel Jarmon, the county’s landfill manager.

Across the county last year, residents recycled 108 tons of paper, 509 tons of cardboard and 17.5 tons of No. 1 plastics, he said.

Those materials represent about 3% of the 20,759 tons of residential waste that was landfilled last year. The landfill also received 6,131 tons of waste from demolition projects, he said.

Across the state, about 17% of municipal waste was diverted from landfills last year, far short of the state’s goal of diverting 28% of the waste by 2021, according to state data.

To encourage recycling, the Montezuma County Landfill is charging waste haulers who don’t offer recycling services to their customers more to dispose of their waste, County Administrator Shak Powers said.

One of the best ways to keep material out of the landfill would be a food composting program because organic waste is the largest part of the waste stream, Powers said. The compost could be sold to residents who need to improve their soil, he said.

The county has met with supermarkets, restaurants and the Montezuma County Health Department about starting a composting program, he said.

“We are just having trouble getting traction,” he said.

But he doesn’t think additional state regulations are needed to bolster diversion rates because state rules can have unintended consequences, he said.

For example, the state’s rules against tires and televisions in landfills taking have increased illegal dumping, he said.

“Our ditches and arroyos are filling up with televisions and tires,” he said.

In Mancos and Dolores, The Four Corners Recycling Initiative, a volunteer-run nonprofit, has seen voluntary recycling increase in recent years, board member Casey Simpson said.

The recycling bins in both towns and the Dolores Public Lands Office diverted 82.9 tons of recycling materials from the landfill last year and are expected to divert 103 tons of materials this year, he said. If the dumpsters could be emptied more regularly, more material could likely be collected, he said.

However, collecting recycling more regularly is a financial strain on the nonprofit, he said.

Long term, he would like to see municipal governments in Dolores and Mancos take over the recycling services, he said.

“It’s just too much money and too much overhead and work to be managed by volunteers,” he said.

To support The Four Corners Recycling Initiative, residents can dine at one of the following restaurants on Friday: Stonefish Sushi, The Farm Bistro and Wildedge Brewing Collective in Cortez; P&D Grocery, Fenceline Cider and Mancos Brewing Co. in Mancos and Montezuma Mexican Restaurant, Dolores River Brewery and Dolores Food Market in Dolores.

mshinn@durangoherald.com