Even though recycling is on the rise regionally, consumers in Southwest Colorado are still sending more trash to landfills than they were in 2007.
WCA Waste, which operates the Bondad Landfill, has reported a 7 percent increase in materials from 243,487 of cubic yards of garbage in 2007 to 260,528 in 2015, according to a Southwest Colorado Index Report.
“There’s definitely room for improvement,” said Donna Graves, who helped edit the report.
On average, each person in La Plata, Montezuma, Dolores, San Juan and Archuleta counties are producing 5.9 pounds of trash a day, which is a bit higher than the national average of 4.4 pounds per day.
However, recycling programs in both Durango and Cortez have seen a boost in participation. The Durango Recycling Center diverted 19 million pounds in 2015 up from 7 million pounds in 2006. In addition to serving Durango and La Plata County, the center takes material from private companies in Montzuma and Archuleta counties.
The City of Durango’s single-stream collection has helped keep more material out of the landfill, Graves said.
“Durango has really made it simple to recycle,” she said.
Cortez has also improved collection, diverting 687,655 pounds in 2006 and 855,690 pounds in 2015. Last year was also the start of plastic recycling in Cortez.
These facilities have increased there collections even revenues from the sales of plastics, metals and other recyclables have fallen sharply. These declines and a voatile market has making it hard for haulers to budget but it may be positive in the long term, said Juri Freeman, the president of the Colorado Association for Recycling.
“I think it will make recyclers more efficient,” he said.
While these facilities are collecting more materials, the region has a whole is only diverting 14 percent of the materials that could be recycled.
Organic materials make up a large portion of what is hauled to the landfills nationwide and locally. Nationally, about 29 percent of the waste in the landfills is made up of organics such as paper and cardboard and another 27 percent consist of yard trimmings and food scraps.
In Durango, about 20 percent of the residential waste is food, according to an audit by the Southwest Colorado Council of Governments. Once the food reaches landfills, it contributes heavily to methane emissions.
But composting typically doesn’t produce any revenue for the municipalities that provide the service, Freeman said.
There are no local governments regularly providing the service in the region, Graves said.
David Golden, recently launched Table to Farm Compost in Durango and his business could potentially divert materials from about 400 households at one time or about 100 cubic yards of material.
But Golden expects it may take time to attract that many customers.
“We have room to grow for sure.. we’re not diverting tons of food waste but some,” he said.
