Two Steamboat Springs residents played important roles in research and planning for a new statewide program that will make access to recycling free to all Colorado residents starting in 2026.

Consultant Winn Cowman, with Sandhill Environmental Services, and Steamboat City Council President Gail Garey were both part of the teams helping to create Extended Producer Responsibility in Colorado. The environmental policy requires producers to bear more responsibility for management of the products and packaging they produce.

Garey, who served on a statewide 13-member advisory board, said a key component of the program is “to ensure everyone who has trash services will also have recycling services, which today isn’t the case for everyone living in Routt County.”

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“The intent of the producer responsibility program is to put the cost of recycling on the producers of the materials reducing the costs for consumers while at the same time increasing recycling in Steamboat Springs and across all of Colorado,” Garey said. “It also creates a system that reduces the usage of non-recyclable materials and encourages the use of recycled materials in new products.”

Garey said the program also will reduce confusion regarding recycling because it creates a statewide minimum recyclables list that will reduce questions about what can and cannot be recycled across different waste vendors or areas of the state.

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The statewide program will reduce fees to producers who design their products and packaging with less environmental impact.

“Anyone selling products in Colorado is encouraged to minimize or make their packaging more recyclable in order to lower their fees,” Cowman said.

Cowman said the new regulations will help Colorado move from being “one of the worst states for recycling in the country to being a leader.”

“Rural Colorado especially stands to benefit, as this program provides access to recycling for all residents,” Cowman said. “It’s going to bring recycling to everyone in the state, and they will either have access to curbside or drop off. Residents who already had recycling access will see a reduction in waste handling fees as recycling will be fully paid for by this state program beginning in 2026.”

Last week, the Joint Budget Committee of the Colorado General Assembly approved the recycling program scenario recommended by the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment. Now implementation of the state’s producer responsibility law can move forward.

The program requires applicable product producers to contribute a small amount of funds for recycling of the products and packaging the companies sell in the state. The funds will help manage the end of life of materials through collection, processing and recycling, or composting.

Colorado designated Circular Action Alliance in May 2023 as the Producer Responsibility Organization to coordinate, fund and manage the statewide recycling system. The plan calls for producers to join the Circular Action Alliance by July 1, 2025, with some exemptions such as for small producers, and to begin paying dues in January 2026.

For online purchases, the producer includes both the producer of the packaging material that directly contains the product, as well as the entity that packages or ships the product to the consumer, according to the CDPHE. If the packaging material is essential for long-term use or storage of a product, such as a CD case or refillable milk bottle, it is not considered an obligated material under the regulations.

Some of the specific goals of the program are to incentivize sustainable packaging, save local governments money, increase recycling and reuse, decrease climate pollution, and provide free and equitable recycling for all residents.

According to a needs assessment report released by the CDPHE, only about 25% of consumer packaging and paper products in Colorado are being recycled currently, and only 20% of households in rural areas currently have curbside recycling services.

The program will develop convenient access and equitable recycling services in rural regions and for multi-family housing neighborhoods while allowing for a phased buildout of infrastructure and collection resources. Rachel Setzke, senior policy and research associate at Eco-Cycle in Boulder, said three other states (Maine, Oregon and California) already have producer responsibility regulations, and 11 additional states are undertaking needs assessments or introducing bills.