The Front Range could be a gold mine for used paper, plastic and metals, but government officials and trash companies have put cheap disposal above any serious efforts to recycle, industry experts say.Private trash haulers do little to encourage customers to recycle, recycling specialists say, and state and local governments here have opposed market incentives to help recycling operators compete with dumps, they add.
The critical comments come on the heels of a May visit to Colorado by paper and timber giant Weyerhaeuser. Representatives of that company said that Colorado recovers only 3 percent to 10 percent of paper waste for recycling, a dismal rate compared with an average 50 percent recovery rate nationally.
Weyerhaeuser, based near Seattle, is eager for more used paper from the Rocky Mountain region because the market for it is exploding as other countries, particularly China, convert it into new products.
Another company specializing in recycling newspapers into new newsprint said last week that it, too, gladly would take more from Colorado if it were available. That firm, Arizona-based Abitibi, already recycles about 35,000 tons a month from Colorado but would like to recycle more.
"Colorado's behind the game," said Mike Flynn, buyer for the firm's paper mill in Snowflake, Ariz. "Given Colorado's lack of participation in recycling, most people in the industry say the Denver metro area is one of the last great untapped resources of recyclables."
The low recycling participation in Colorado "goes against what most people's perception of Colorado might be," Flynn said.
Recycling specialists say such comments are further evidence of healthy markets for recyclables - contrary to long-running claims that recycling is a money loser.
The problem, as they see it, is that in Colorado more money can be made by throwing the trash away.
In recent interviews, recycling experts in Colorado accused trash haulers and landfill operators of fighting significant advances in recycling, since those industries, which have invested heavily in landfills and trash trucks, profit more by dumping in landfills and burying the refuse.
"They make so much money by throwing everything in the ground, they don't want to bite into that profit," said Barb Halpin, an outreach coordinator for Eco-Cycle, a nonprofit organization that operates recycling projects in Boulder County.
Trash haulers take issue with some recyclers' complaints. Some dispute estimates suggesting that Coloradans recycle only a small percentage of their paper. They said they believe that the numbers are higher, but couldn't offer any.
Trash company officials said that they are investing in recycling technology but that, ultimately, the free market should determine methods of disposal. One firm voicing such a view is Waste Management, the country's largest waste firm and one that, in recent years, has started to invest in recycling operations.
Those investments have been required, at least in part, because so many local governments around the country, including a small number in Colorado, have required waste haulers to offer recycling services. Some states have even set goals requiring that certain percentages of the waste stream be recycled, forcing trash companies to act.
"Waste Management is in favor of a free-market system and providing services that individuals and industries need," said Phil Price, Colorado market area recycling manager for Recycle America Alliance, a subsidiary of Waste Management. "We don't believe government should be involved in driving the way our business should go."
The top environmental official in Gov. Bill Owens' administration shares a similar view. Doug Benevento, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said that although recycling is "appropriate," it's "really a question of what the market will bear. . . . We believe a lot of it is dictated by market conditions."
Recycling proponents argue that dumping in landfills, even in land-rich Colorado at the rock bottom cost of $10 to $15 per ton, isn't the cheapest method of disposal for several reasons.
They cite the fact that many landfills have leaked years after being closed, contaminating groundwater. That forces taxpayers to pay costly cleanup costs, sometimes reaching into the millions of dollars.
Trash firms counter that waste companies invest heavily in today's landfills, which are built to high environmental standards and are unlikely to fail in a way that would cause groundwater pollution.
Recycling advocates also say that societies that don't recycle consume more virgin materials through mining, timber and fossil fuel. Processing them is generally less energy efficient than recycling.
Landfills also contribute methane to the mix of gases that many scientists believe are contributing to global climate change, with the potential for serious environmental and economic consequences.
The landfill industry "is allowed to contaminate the environment and pass the cost onto future generations," said Eric Lombardi, executive director of Eco-Cycle. Recyclers, on the other hand, "don't get to pass our costs on to somebody else."
Lombardi and others cite numerous examples of governments that have taken steps to encourage recycling. Among them:
• In Loveland, officials are charging residents for how much they throw away, encouraging them to recycle. The city now recycles nearly 60 percent of its waste, leaving about 40 percent for landfills. The city's costs to recycle were almost $50 per ton less than the cost of landfilling.
• In Norway, concerns about groundwater contamination led government to increase significantly the per-ton cost of disposal at landfills, setting aside the money for future cleanups. As the price for throwing away trash jumped, recycling became the cheaper option.
• In Denver, officials in the city and county's recycling arm said that recycling saved the city about $200,000 in landfill costs in 2004. The same year, it also brought the city about $1 million in sales of recyclables. Even factoring in the cost of curbside collection, the program ended up costing less than collecting the same materials and dumping them in a landfill, said Charlotte Pitt, Denver's recycling program manager.
Critics say that trash companies, even those offering recycling, do little to encourage it. In fact, some say, they discourage it by charging customers a monthly recycling fee and bin fee.
The "subscription system," as it's called, typically has a participation rate of 20 percent, Lombardi said. The opposite approach, in which recycling costs are rolled into the trash bill and every house is supplied with a bin, has a far higher participation rate, Lombardi said.
For those who say such a method masks the cost of recycling, Lombardi notes that trash service typically costs two to three times what companies charge for recycling: $8 per month for trash, compared with the $2 to $3 additional charge for recycling, for example.
"There is a charge for that, but I do believe that the other major (haulers) have the same thing," said Price, of Waste Management's Recycle America. "It's really an issue of it's truly a service of picking up the commodity at the household."
Lombardi said he doesn't place the ultimate blame with the trash haulers, who are simply "following the profits."
"What has to happen is to have enlightened elected officials change the rules for all trash haulers, so they all get on board and do business the right way," Lombardi said.
In places where that has occurred, waste companies have adapted, he said. "They've become the recyclers and the composters," he said.
Recycling push
ReThink Recycling is a program to increase recycling in Denver beginning June 15. Some of the changes are:
• New recyclables: Corrugated cardboard, junk mail, paperboard (such as cereal boxes), office paper, magazines and catalogs, phone books and brown paper bags.
• Old recyclables still good: Aluminum cans and foil, newspapers and inserts, plastic bottles, glass bottles, steel cans and empty aerosol cans.
• No separating: All recyclables can be mixed together in one container.
• Request bins: Call Denver Recycles at 720-865-6805, or go the the Web site below, to request two recycling bins. The bins may not arrive for several months. In the meantime, a cardboard box or trash can marked "recycle" can be used. Information will be mailed on where and when to set out recyclables.
• Larger bins: Phased in over five years in some locations.Source: Denver Department Of Public Works/Solid Waste Management, Www.Denvergov.Org/Denverrecycles
Throwing it away
Colorado lags the nation in paper recycling.
10% is the most paper waste that Colorado recovers for recycling, compared with an average 50 percent recovery rate nationally.
$20 per ton is the cost to dump in landfills in Colorado, compared with up to $100 per ton in other states.
2.8% of Colorado waste stream is recycled, compared with 48.8 percent in Oregon, 45.6 percent in Minnesota and 41.7 percent in Iowa.
Sources: National Solid Wastes Management Association, Weyerhaeuser
