How EPR Increases Recycling Access in Colorado

Where you live shouldn’t determine whether you can recycle. But, for many years in Colorado, it has.

Some communities have had convenient curbside recycling for decades. Others rely on drop-off sites, shared bins or have limited or inconsistent options. Those gaps haven’t been about recycling interest or effort. They’ve been about access to recycling, or a lack of access.

Colorado’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program is designed to change that by building a more consistent, statewide recycling system — one that expands access over time and removes some of the barriers that have held recycling back.

The Access Challenge Colorado Faces

When recycling services are convenient and reliable, people are far more likely to use them. When access is limited (especially in rural areas, multi-family housing or places without organized service) participation drops.

In many parts of the state, recycling has been unavailable because the costs of starting or maintaining programs have fallen heavily on local governments, small businesses or residents themselves. That has made it difficult to expand recycling evenly across Colorado.

EPR changes the equation.

What EPR Does Differently

Under Colorado’s EPR law, the companies that make packaging and paper products help fund the recycling system. That funding supports the real costs of recycling — collection, sorting, processing, and education — so communities aren’t left to shoulder those expenses alone.

EPR doesn’t mandate a single recycling model for every community. Instead, it aims to make recycling service as easy and convenient as local trash service.

How Access Expands Over Time

Recycling access won’t change everywhere all at once. Colorado’s recycling system is designed to grow in phases, building on what already exists while expanding where it’s needed most.

Early efforts focus on reimbursing existing services and increasing participation where recycling access exists. Over time, funding from brands helps to expand service and recycle more items. 

For residents, increasing access means: more opportunities to recycle, guidelines that are easier to understand and a statewide approach that works toward fairness and consistency. For communities, increased access means more support to offer recycling services without placing the full financial burden on local budgets or residents.

EPR recognizes that communities start from different places and that meaningful access requires planning, coordination and sustained investment.

Access Isn’t Just About Bins

Increasing recycling access isn’t only about adding bins or trucks. It’s also about making recycling understandable and usable.

Statewide education plays a key role. Clear guidance on what can be recycled — and how to recycle correctly — helps reduce confusion and contamination, which makes recycling programs more effective. EPR funding supports consistent education so people across Colorado receive easy-to-understand information.

Building Toward a Statewide System

EPR isn’t a quick fix, and it isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s a framework designed to address long-standing access challenges. Together, brands, communities and residents support a recycling system that reaches more Coloradans steadily and sustainably.

Because when recycling is accessible, people use it. And when access grows, recycling works better for everyone.