An effort by Montezuma County to expand recycling is showing good initial results.
In 2014, county commissioners revamped operations at the county landfill from a stacked-bale system to a compaction process.
That freed up an industrial baler for recyclables so they could be shipped and sold on the open market.
Landfill manager Shak Powers reported this month that the landfill had a 13 percent diversion rate in 2016, compared with 7 percent in 2015.
“We kept 3,076 tons out of the landfill due to the recycling program,” he reported to the commission recently. “The more we keep out of the landfill, the longer it will last.”
The program broke even as well, he said, which was a goal of the county, and it created a full-time position.
“We did not want to lose any money, and actually come out ahead by $50,” Powers said.
The landfill collects cardboard, tin and aluminum, No. 1 and 2 plastics, paper, electronic waste, tires and biosolids.
Staff found a creative solution to eliminating a middle man commonly relied on by recycling programs called a materials reclamation facility.
Reclamation facilities in Grand Junction and Denver receive single-stream recyclables that are mixed together then separated for a cost, reducing the amount paid to organizations selling recycling.
The landfill came up with a hybrid single-stream system in which customers with Waste Management separately bag tin and aluminum, paper, plastics and cardboard for pick up. On the landfill’s tipping floor, the new labor position further sorts the different bagged recyclables into piles that are baled for shipment direct to buyers instead of to the materials reclamation facility.
In 2016, the landfill collected 26 tons of the hybrid single-stream, 508 tons of cardboard and 268 tons of paper.
The county landfill partners with the city of Cortez recycling program, the Four Corners Recycling Initiative and Waste Management. The landfill also utilized sterilized biosolids from the Cortez Sanitation District for composting.
Powers wants to expand the organic and composting portion of the recycling program. Keeping organic wastes out of the landfill reduces problematic leachate and methane production issues, he said.
One plan is to divert produce from supermarkets out of the landfill and into the composting system.
“That would further save landfill space, and provide for more compost that is in demand by the public,” Powers said. “We need to see what if would take for supermarkets to separate produce waste.”
Another goal is to reach out to schools and Southwest Memorial Hospital to recycle milk and juice cartons. The fibrous makeup of the cartons have a market because they are ideal for recycling into bathroom tissue.
A dedicated baler has created more opportunities for recycling at the landfill. For example, Aaramark, the food concessionaire for Mesa Verde National Park, recently began sending its cardboard to the landfill to be recycled and sold.
“The goal is to become a hub and spoke for regional recycling,” Powers said. “We draw from local towns and counties, and would like to see how far our tentacles can reach.”
jmimiaga@the-journal.com