Partnerships are key in diversion efforts in Colorado

Residents feel similar solid waste partnerships can work

Many communities in the county will also begin curbside composting collection this year, and to help residents understand the concept and do some themselves through backyard composting bins, Boulder County's Resource Conservation Division has partnered with the cities of Boulder, Longmont and Broomfield for educational workshops.

Shireen Miller, waste reduction coordinator for the City of Boulder's Environmental Affairs Office said the partnership aspect is ‘‘very important” in achieving zero waste goals.

‘‘What has allowed us to accomplish what we have are these partnerships and the willing to collaborate,” she said.

Miller said while the elected officials and policies may differ, it is important to send a consistent message on waste reduction in Boulder County, right down to a consistent look to recycling and composting collection bins.

Collaboration on zero waste is nothing new, however.

In 1994, Boulder County enacted a one-tenth of a cent sales tax for recycling and composting efforts to last seven years and generate $23 million. Representatives from the county, the City of Boulder and nine other municipalities formed the Boulder County Recycling and Composting Authority to oversee the tax, including awarding Eco-Cycle a contract to operate the county's recycling center.

When that group was dissolved in 2000, the Boulder County Resource Conservation Division was formed to continue their efforts and expand upon waste reduction and recycling programs.

A new group, the 20-member Resource Conservation Advisory Board, including city and town representatives, a representative from Eco-Cycle and five at-large members now meets as a vital resource to share ideas and issues facing the county. The group formed in 2002.

The main goal of the board is to develop policy and action recommendations for a long-range county-wide solid waste management plan for approval by the Board of County Commissioners.

‘‘We are all in this together,” said Jeff Callahan, manager of the county's resource conservation division. ‘‘...We coordinate and work very closely in outreach so the messages [to residents] are the same. ... You don't just go in and tell a city what to do.”

Both Callahan and Miller credit the work of the authority and the current advisory board with ironing out planning and logistical issues and hearing directly from municipalities about potential obstacles.

‘‘I feel like since we all know each other and have worked together for years that it has helped build a collaborative team,” Miller said. ‘‘From getting the tax to the authority to Eco-Cycle ... it was all working on the pieces of the puzzle together.”

Working together in Frederick

Frederick officials feel they also are working well together on solid waste issues, especially with the county overseeing recycling collection at the curb and at collection centers for its municipalities.

‘‘Boulder County has achieved things through partnerships with municipalities - that's the way it always is,” Frederick Board of County Commissioners President Jan H. Gardner (D) said. ‘‘We have half the equation, they are the other half.”

Gardner said while some ‘‘balked” when the county banned yard waste from the landfill a few years ago, the county saved money by cutting down on tonnage.

‘‘There is no reason we can't have a good relationship with the municipalities,” she said.

While Gardner did not go to Colorado, Frederick Mayor W. Jeff Holtzinger (R) and Alderman C. Paul Smith (R) did make the trip to see both what the county could enact and what might work independently in the city.

‘‘I want to see what they are doing and compare apples to apples,” Holtzinger said prior to the trip. ‘‘...There may be things [the county] wants to do and we [the city] will play a big part, so it is important to get ourselves educated.”

More specific to the city, Holtzinger was looking forward to learning more about methods to increase recycling that he can bring back to Frederick.

‘‘I truly believe there are things we can learn there,” he said. ‘‘...We have to work together. We [the city] have to do better with recycling ... as we are too much of a 'throw away' society.”

Already having enacted ‘‘mandatory recycling” in his town, Thurmont Mayor Martin A. Burns said he is open to more collaboration when it comes to reducing waste.

‘‘I don't know if we can get to 'zero waste' ... but I'd like to see what Boulder is doing to see if it is viable in Thurmont.”

Burns said similar to expectations in Boulder, single-stream recycling should ‘‘help everyone” reduce waste in Frederick County.

The mayor said Thurmont could even streamline its own operations by adding recycling to trash pick-up in an effort to save the county money. To compensate the cost for municipalities, perhaps the county could drop its tipping fees, Burns suggested.

‘‘There are many examples where the county has partnered with municipalities, even through acrimonious times,” he said. ‘‘...This Board of County Commissioners knows what partnership means. There are always aspects that can be worked out.”