BRECKENRIDGE — A proposed policy requiring trash collected in Summit County to be disposed of locally may boost the landfill's falling revenues, but it won't solve the bigger problem: the facility's unsustainable financial dependence on garbage.

The county-owned landfill revenues have dropped more than 30 percent in recent years, as high prices drive many haulers to take Summit County trash to cheaper dumps on the Front Range.

Now the county is appealing to the town governments for mandates that would require haulers to bring trash collected locally to the Summit County landfill.

“The reason is, we help fund recycling with trash,” assistant county manager Thad Noll said. “If people are using the recycling, but bringing the trash other places, that model doesn't work.”

With the increased popularity of diversion programs like recycling and composting and haulers taking their Summit County trash elsewhere, the amount of garbage dropped at the Summit County landfill has dropped from 62,000 tons a year to 42,000 tons a year, hitting the facility's revenues hard.

The funding problem reveals a fundamental flaw in the waste collection system. The landfill's profits depend on the very thing environmentally conscious officials want to discourage.

“Over the years we've been funding all these (waste diversion) programs with garbage,” Noll said. “But that business model does not work when our goal is to get rid of garbage.”

Controlling the flow

The county's appeal to the towns for mandates requiring Summit County trash to be taken to the Summit County landfill, a policy known as “flow control,” is only a temporary solution to the broader problem, officials said.

Local trash haulers have opposed flow control measures, calling them anti-competitive and saying they would likely increase trash collection prices for customers long term.

“Naturally, we don't want more regulation,” said David Whitmer, co-owner of Timberline Disposal LLC in Dillon. “It would be like letting a genie out of a bottle. They could charge whatever they want and you would have to use that facility. It's really kind of like hidden taxation.”

Haulers currently pay between $68 and $78 per ton to drop trash at the Summit County landfill. Prices at Front Range landfills tend to run about $25 per ton. Local haulers estimated it costs them an additional $10 or $15 per ton to get the trash down to the Denver metro area.

County officials met with the Breckenridge Town Council Tuesday and are scheduled to discuss flow-control ordinances with each of the town governments by the end of the month.

Breckenridge officials were non-committal on the flow-control question, saying they supported waste diversion programs but needed to know more to support a local disposal mandate.

“There's no way I'm voting for something until I get the answers from the other side on what it costs the end user,” Councilman Eric Mamula said at Tuesday's council meeting.

The Summit Board of County Commissioners will also be considering a flow-control measure in the near future.

A trash force

County officials said they hope to create a taskforce of stakeholders, including trash-collection companies to begin working on a new system for waste disposal and diversion.

“We really need a group of smart and interested people to get together and figure out a vision for Summit County,” Noll said.

But a new system will most likely require customers to pay for recycling, which, for many Summit County residents and businesses, is currently included in trash collection costs.

Trash haulers are not charged to drop recycling at the Summit County landfill.

“At some point, the public needs to know that it costs money to get rid of something,” Breckenridge Mayor John Warner said Tuesday. “They're going to have to pay for it. To me, the flow-control concept is a partial remedy. It's kind of a Band-Aid.”

The landfill does charge nominal fees to dispose of old appliances and electronics, usually between $8 and $15 depending on the weight and size of the item.