New Packaging Fee Will More than Double Landfill Diversion, Colorado Recycling Study Finds

Still, recycling advocates were excited by the potential they say the report shows for improving Colorado’s dismal landfill-diversion rates.

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): The pending packaging fee to fund expansion of recycling efforts across Colorado could more than double statewide diversions from landfills for just fractions of a penny per consumer item, according to recycling advocates reviewing a key baseline study for the law. But then again, those fractions add up in a state with nearly 6 million residents consuming retail goods every day. The study, meant to set out options for how to run a new “producers responsibility fee” to promote more recycling, shows that the highest-cost scenario would need to raise $290 million a year by 2035.

Still, recycling advocates were excited by the potential they say the report shows for improving Colorado’s dismal landfill-diversion rates. The new study is part of the process set up by the legislature when it authorized a producer-guided recycling fee on consumer packaging. The study estimates the current diversion rates at 22% to 28% of Colorado’s covered packaging waste. (Consumer advocates like CoPIRG, which include a wider variety of waste to calculate their ratios, say Colorado is only diverting about 16% of its waste.)

Using the packaging fees to  introduce curbside recycling in Colorado communities that do not offer it would boost diversion to 47% to 54% of the waste stream covered by the rules under the low-case scenario, and to 54% to 60% diversion if the Cadillac version of the three scenarios moves forward.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantage.com

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