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Circular Action Alliance (CAA), HDR Engineering and Eunomia hosted a webinar yesterday to discuss Colorado’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) program for paper and packaging recycling. Haulers across Colorado were invited to the approximately 40-minute session to learn about the next steps in the implementation process and discuss the upcoming needs assessment period.
Colorado signed its producer responsibility law in 2022 to improve recycling outcomes for paper and packaging products. The new law places responsibility on producers of paper and packaging products to fund and operate recycling programs. In May, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) appointed CAA as a producer responsibility organization (PRO) to lead the EPR program implementation.
HDR Engineering, Omaha, Nebraska, and Eunomia, Bristol, United Kingdom, were selected by CAA to tender the needs assessment as the next step in implementing the EPR program.
“The needs assessment is an in-depth study that's meant to assess Colorado's existing recycling system and identify opportunities for growth and improvement to the system,” said Peter Hargreave, project representative at CAA. “It's meant to provide the roadmap for the producer responsibility organization and inform the rulemaking process that we’ll be moving forward with.”
RELATED: Colorado EPR bill signed into law
As the “first building block” of the new structure, Hargreave said HDR and Eunomia hope to leverage the experiences and knowledge of haulers across the state to complete the needs assessment by Jan. 2024.
“That's where you all, as haulers, play such a critical role in this conversation as you're collecting materials… [and] bringing them to their places to be processed,” said Kate Bartelt, resources, sustainability and resilience lead at HDR. “We are really looking to get an understanding of Colorado's system as a whole. Regardless of if you're a large hauler or small hauler, representing rural parts of the state or urban parts of the state, we're really trying to get that snapshot of what's going on across the whole community.”
Bartelt said the needs assessment seeks to answer the following questions:
What recycling services are currently being provided? Who is providing them and where?
What is the performance level of the existing system?
Is the system accessible?
What are recycling rates?
What is the cost of the current system?
Where are collected materials processed?
What are the local end markets? Do they exist and is development needed?
Rather than relying on surveys, Bartelt said HDR will conduct interviews with a minimum of three large national haulers, nine medium regional haulers and 15 small haulers to help answer those questions. Haulers across all four geographic regions of Colorado are being prioritized to gather the most accurate information, Bartelt said.
Haulers were encouraged to reach out to HDR by email if they wished to be included in the needs assessment.
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