Last summer, in anticipation of the county adopting a universal recycling ordinance, our homeowners association voted to start single-stream recycling for a trial run of six months. We followed all recommendations from and worked closely with High Country Conservation Center and our trash service providers. Out of six months of recycling, only one uncontaminated 6-yard load was accepted for single-stream recycling. Despite our efforts and repeated messaging to our community, every other single weekly dumpster pick-up of recycling was contaminated and had to be sent to the landfill.

In our experiment, despite repeated messaging, free recycling bins, and very clear labeling all over the dumpster in Spanish and English, we could not avoid contamination of recyclables. In those six months we sent approximately 162 yards of recyclable materials to the landfill that could have been recycled. Our attempt at single-stream recycling not only filled the landfill faster but also reduced the amount of recycling our community had been doing before we started single-stream recycling.

So, due to the above factors we recently discontinued recycling because it actually reduced the amount of recycling in our community and increased the amount of landfill and caused our trash dumpsters to fill more quickly, necessitating multiple pick-ups that cost our homeowners more money and attracting bears and other wildlife.

I suspect what happened in our homeowners association is a microcosm of a macrocosm, as humans are humans everywhere. All this to say, I am writing to ask the Summit Board of County Commissioners to strongly reconsider enforcing the universal recycling ordinance, or at least consider the factors I have mentioned in our real-life case Summit County case study to revise the ordinance so that that it is successful.