Phoenix Recycling founder Mark Thompson said a state recycling program, which will charge producers of recyclables fees to fund public and private recycling services, is headed in a good direction, although some uncertainty about how the program will come together gives him concern.
The statewide Producer Responsibility program aims to reduce recycling service fees to residents and recycling customers by charging fees to producers of recyclables such as cans, bottles and cardboard packages.
Thompson said the program is taking Colorado in the right direction, although many details have yet to be made clear.
“The goals are good and the direction is well-intentioned. I am concerned that getting from here to there is going to be a little rocky, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad idea or that we shouldn’t try it,” he said.
He said the process for private service providers such as Phoenix Recycling will be different from municipal haulers such as the city of Durango, which is in the middle of an application process.
Thompson said he has no idea what reimbursement rates to expect.
“We have no idea if we will be offered $2 a month to collect someone’s recycling, $12 a month, $22 a month, $32 a month,” he said.
Neither public nor private service providers are required to participate in the program, he said, but competitive market forces leave private providers with little choice.
“In a competitive market like La Plata County, those who participate will be able to offer free recycling, and those who do not will have to charge for it,” he said.
Thompson said pricing for open market, unincorporated areas is expected to be released on May 8, so private service providers like Phoenix Recycling are in a holding pattern.
At this time, he expects the earliest private service providers can get contracts locked in place to be September.
“We’ve already started getting emails of like, ‘Hey, do you know my recycling’s supposed to be free?’ Like, not quite yet,” he said. “We still have to buy diesel for our trucks, and no one’s paying us a penny right now other than our customers.”
Although he has concerns about transitioning into the program – no transition involving a large government program happens without challenges, he said. Thompson said he also sees the benefits of the program.
Applying market forces to producers on the supply side of the equation is one such upside, he said.
Drink products in a gas station are commonly contained in creative packaging designed to capture a customer’s attention, he said. The marketing process of displaying product in packaging that stands out from competition results in a lot of varied packaging, which is more difficult to recycle.
The Producer Responsibility program charges producers higher fees for packaging that is harder to recycle, creating an incentive for producers to use more easily recycled materials, he said.
“Right now, you put it in a very recyclable piece of plastic or a very difficult to recycle piece of plastic, there’s no end-of-life cost tied to that packaging decision,” he said. “It’s strictly a marketing decision right now, so this will hopefully help clean that up.”
He said the program should also provide more data about what materials are actually being recycled.
Juri Freeman, executive director of the Colorado Circular Action Alliance, said residents will feel the most impact of the Producer Responsibility program in their pocketbooks. But the program, by encouraging reuse, refill and better packaging design, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions comparable to removing hundreds of thousands of vehicles from the road every year.
Freeman said the CAA, a national nonprofit engaged in similar programs across the country, is already working with local governments, recycling haulers and recycling facilities to set up reimbursement agreements. But the program requires significant planning and coordination, and will be rolled out in several phases over several years.
Freeman said in addition to shifting who pays for recycling from residents and governments to producers, the Producer Responsibility program supports cleaner air and water, creates jobs by investing in local recycling infrastructure, and increases the amount of recycled materials used to make new products.
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