Tricia Canonico
Colorado’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Needs Assessment was recently released and confirms there is reason to expect recycling to improve in Colorado. This is encouraging news. The Colorado Producer Responsibility Program was passed by the state Legislature in 2022 with the goal of improving Colorado’s unfortunately low recycling rates. Needs assessments show that simply by implementing EPR, states can increase their recycling rates from about 25% to as low as 33% and as high as 60% by 2035.
The law requires all Colorado residents, whether they live in a single-family home or apartment complex, to receive recycling services at no additional charge, and provides incentives for manufacturers to improve the recyclability of their packaging. It has the complementary benefit of providing A very important provision of this law is that the advance payments are financed by the producers of the materials and therefore do not increase costs for consumers or local governments.
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This needs assessment is of particular interest to Fort Collins. In Fort Collins, the county is in the process of closing an old landfill and opening a new one, exposing the high cost of waste. Landfilling materials that could be reused or recycled is frustrating and expensive.
We understand that everyone wants to improve this flawed system, but until now consumers, residents and governments have had limited options.
As a City Council member, it has been extremely difficult to help residents and business owners understand the confusing and mixed messages about recycling. The underlying narrative that “recycling doesn’t work” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we don’t recycle, there won’t be enough material to support the recycling industry. EPR programs turn this idea on its head by providing incentives for companies to produce recyclable packaging with fewer resources, ultimately saving producers, and ultimately their customers, money. It also gives consumers added confidence that items thrown in the trash can are indeed recycled.
Most of us would like to reduce waste, but there are many reasons to do so, such as conserving resources used in manufacturing and limiting hazardous emissions and greenhouse gases released from landfills. There are many reasons. Reducing the cost of solid waste disposal is an important element of waste reduction.
Colorado has emissions reduction goals, and so do local governments like Fort Collins. Successful producer responsibility programs not only help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they also benefit businesses, the planet, residents and local governments.
Tricia Canonico is a Fort Collins City Council member for District 3.