The recycling bins at the Mancos Schools Maintenance Barn returned on Sunday, Sept. 29, but the return may be short-lived.
They were taken away in May when the baler started having issues at the Montezuma County Landfill. It was repaired by the end of August, however, and drop-off recycling bins returned to Cortez and Dolores well before they did Mancos.
That’s because, of all three towns, the bins in Mancos are the most contaminated.
“If we can’t address the trashing of the bin sites, the replacement won’t be long term … we can’t continue to fund it at the rate it gets contaminated,” said Casey Simpson, the board president at Four Corners Recycling Initiative, a nonprofit that makes the free recycling bins in Mancos and Dolores possible.
“People regularly put things in the bins that aren’t recyclable,” Simpson said.
The problem with bin contamination comes down to economics.
When bins are contaminated, it’s a double loss: The landfill charges for it, and the revenue usually awarded for a well recycled bin is withheld. Such revenue pays for hauling the bin, and helps the Initiative, at best, break even, Simpson said.
Usually, it operates at a loss, though, which is covered by grants. This year, the Four Corners Recycling Initiative got significantly less grant money than years past.
On June 15 last year, the Initiative received $14,145 from Colorado’s Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity program, which was replaced by Colorado Circular Communities Enterprise (C3) on July 1 this year.
This year on May 29, it got $4,138.
“The $10,000 deficit will be very very difficult to overcome,” Simpson said in an email.
It’s still unclear whether the new C3 Program will offer a rebate funding program for free public drop-off sites, which is what has funded such sites in years past in Montezuma County.
Thus, having to pay fines for contaminated bins in Mancos isn’t feasible. And to the landfill, which pays workers to sort through the recyclables, it’s not feasible, either.
“The mentality is that if it’s plastic, it’s recyclable,” said Mel Jarmon, the Montezuma County landfill manager. “That’s just not true.”
The landfill only accepts No. 1 and No. 2 plastics. If it’s not one of those, they don’t want it, Jarmon said.
They even find health hazards like used diapers in the bins, Jarmon said.
Plus, at the recycling site in Mancos, people regularly overflow the bins or leave recyclables beside them, which blows around the property.
“It was counterproductive to recycling,” said Todd Cordrey, superintendent of the Mancos School District RE-6.
Overflow was one reason they removed the bins, Cordrey said.
Mostly keeping the bins away came down to contamination, which is so problematic that Jarmon said the landfill might stop accepting recycling from Mancos if it continues.
“People feel good recycling,” said Jarmon. “But if you’re going to do it, do it right. Or don’t do it at all.”
