Dear Ben,
Well, Ben, this is a much more complicated question
than you'd imagine, but let me try to distill what could be a
whole book down to a column. I've got good news and bad news for
you. The good news is that Boulder County has a national reputation
for having the cleanest materials provided by some of the most
conscientious recyclers in the land. Having started the recycling
revolution in 1976 with one of the first curbside programs in
the nation, the City of Boulder now estimates that more than 90%
of their residents participate in curbside recycling, and that's
phenomenal. So are we superstars in the Recycling Hall of Fame?
On this score, the answer is yes.
However, the bad news comes when you look at
the percent of our waste that is diverted from landfills through
composting and recycling - our diversion rate. The EPA estimates
the national average diversion rate to be 30%. The City of Boulder's
recent data shows that their residents get a relatively high score
on this count with a 50% diversion rate. Unfortunately, Boulder
businesses bring the average down, with only 19% of their waste
being recovered. County-wide, we don't really know the landfill
diversion rate, but some have estimated that 23% of the waste
is recovered. For our beautiful state of Colorado, the numbers
are well below average, with a diversion rate of less than 20%.
So why aren't we winning blue ribbons for waste
diversion? There are two big reasons:
The first is that Colorado is right in the middle of the "free
for all states," a clump of primarily western states that
have very little public control over recycling and waste diversion.
It's what national economics expert Peter Anderson recently called
"recycling hell" in a keynote speech to Colorado recyclers.
Our County doesn't have a landfill (we export all our trash to
Weld and Jefferson Counties), so it's difficult to do our own
regulation. Despite being located in the recycling underworld,
Boulder County's program is considered the best you can find between
St. Louis and California, so we can be proud of that.
The second reason for our less-than-impressive
diversion rates is that Colorado has some of the lowest landfill
fees in the nation, creating an economic incentive to bury everything
in the dump. Our "tip fees" at the landfill average
a mere $12 per ton. That's compared to states in the Northeast,
the Pacific Coast and many in the Midwest that have fees higher
than $50 per ton, some as high as $90 per ton. Throughout the
industrialized world, you will be hard-pressed to find lower tip
fees than ours. Because other communities have made it more expensive
to landfill materials than recycle them, they've created a cost-incentive
for communities and businesses to recover as much as they can.
Their diversion rates have soared as a result.
Certainly Boulder County is faring well compared
to the rest of the state and to others who fall in the free-for-all
zone, but to get Boulder County back on the national recycling
top ten charts, there are three significant steps other communities
have taken that could boost our numbers: a composting program
to handle commercial sector food and yard waste, recycling and
waste diversion programs for the business sector, and policies
that create a market incentive to increase recycling and a disincentive
for waste. Who knows? If we take these steps, maybe we can give
San Francisco a run for its money and match its 75% waste diversion
goal!
Learn more about what other communities are
doing by visiting www.epa.gov and read "Cutting the Waste
Stream in Half, Community Record-Setters Show How."
