PAYT is not a Boulder creation. Thousands of communities across the country are doing it with great success in cutting waste. The Boulder City Council and staff deserve praise for their creativity and vision in passing an ordinance which is full of common sense and uses the power of the marketplace to achieve an important social and environmental goal.

Next Steps for Boulder County
Here is a list of five more “common sense” steps for Boulder County which Eco-Cycle will be helping to develop over the next couple of years. All of these proposals are being implemented in other communities in the USA, so there’s no reason why local action need be delayed on any of these ideas.

A Composting Program
“Compost Happens,” as the saying goes… or does it? Colorado has relatively poor soils, yet a massive amount of good local organic material that could be used to improve soil structure continues to be dumped into landfills. Although a fledgling “on-farm composting” experiment has been started in Boulder County, it is stumbling for lack of some good non-carbon feedstock such as food waste or manure. The rest of the nation has taken great strides in recycling organics—now it’s our turn.

Space for Recycling at Apartment Complexes
“Space Parity” is not something from Star Trek. It is what is needed to boost recycling rates in offices, businesses, apartments and multi-family unit complexes (MFUs). One of the biggest challenges in setting up recycling services for these customers is the lack of outdoor space for recycling bins. (You’ll note, there always seems to be plenty of room for big trash dumpsters.) Space parity is simply a “new rule” which says that all MFUs and commercial buildings must provide space for recycling that is at least EQUAL to the amount of space provided for trash containers. In new construction, we have found architects who are glad to design for space parity. The real challenge and opportunity, however, lies in retrofitting existing buildings.

Ordinance for Construction Waste
Construction waste in Boulder County is significant and unnecessary. Over half the waste at a construction site is valuable wood, cardboard and metals. These items can all be easily recycled locally, but most of them aren’t. A new ordinance is needed which would require developers to submit a landfill-diversion plan before permission is granted to build, and which would also require that proof of plan implementation be provided before the all-important “certificate of occupancy” is granted.

Hold Producers Responsible for Waste 
“Producer Responsibility,” which requires industry to participate in the full life-cycle management of their products (see story page 4), is the next great step forward in protecting our Earth, and Boulder County should get to work immediately on two important aspects of this. First, the huge expense of running the Boulder County Household Hazardous Waste Facility needs to be shifted at least partially off the backs of the general public and over to the producers of the pesticides, herbicides and other toxic poisons which must be specially handled so as not to cause environmental damage. Second, the tidal wave of throw-away electronics is expanding rapidly and promises to flood toxic heavy metals into our groundwater via landfills unless something is done quickly. A good first step would be to create an “Advance Disposal Fee,” or ADF, which consumers would pay at the point of purchase (say, $10 per computer) to go toward the cost of creating a recycling infrastructure for EE (electronic and electrical) goods.

This is just a short list of a few important steps we could be implementing in Boulder County over the next two years. They are all “common sense” proposals being implemented somewhere in the USA or the world. It won’t be easy to bring about these changes, but Eco-Cycle will continue to push for them in pursuit of our Zero Waste vision. We can’t be successful without your support, especially through letters-to-editor and phone calls to your City Council members. So please, when you see us out front trying to change our world for the better, take five minutes to pick up the phone or a pen and let the rest of the county and local politicians know that you too support a less wasteful world.