The Montezuma County landfill and local haulers are considering options for expanding recycling services.
Baker Sanitation and Waste Management are exploring a plan with the landfill to provide curbside recycling service for rural customers and those in Mancos and Dolores.
Landfill manager Shak Powers reported to the county commission last week that in order for it to break even financially, residents would be required to separate paper, metal, plastics, and cardboard. Glass would not be picked up.
His proposal requires that mixed paper go into bags together; aluminum and tin cans be bagged together; No. 1 and No. 2 plastics be bagged together; and cardboard be stacked loose.
A key component of the program is educating the public on what can be recycled and how to separate it for curbside pickup, Powers said.
"We want to avoid contaminated loads," he said. "A public-education campaign will be crucial to explain what can be recycled, and how to separate each type at the curb."
The landfill recently adjusted its operations to a loose-fill compaction system. The new format frees up an industrial baler and warehouse tipping floor, which will now be used solely for recycling purposes.
Under the proposal, after residents sort out metal, paper, plastic, and cardboard at the curb, the haulers will load the material and deliver it to the landfill.
Newly hired sorters will then divide the different types of recyclables into piles, which will then be baled and sold by the landfill on the open market.
Powers has been crunching the numbers to determine how much of each commodity will arrive for recycling, the revenues it will bring in, and the labor costs for sorting it all.
"With this approach, we believe the program will break even with enough leeway to adjust for fluctuating prices," he said. "The program will eventually create five new sorting jobs."
According to a recent audit, packer trucks from Waste Management and Baker Sanitation delivered 10,059 tons of waste to the landfill in 2014. The audit calculated that 43.3 percent of the waste stream is recyclable.
The City of Cortez already has a curb-side recycling program using its own haulers, and that will continue unaffected.
