Late in the evening on April 7th, 2022, I had the opportunity to testify in front of the Colorado House Energy & Environment Committee. A previous bill had run long, so we didn’t get started until 10:00 pm. Each person had two minutes to speak and most of the House Representatives seemed to be nodding off, so I don’t know how much difference it made, but below is what I wrote out as a guide for my comment. You can find information about this bill, and the recording of the hearing in the links below.
Bill Text: https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb22-1355
FAQ from the bill sponsors: https://www.recyclingforallcoloradans.org/
Recording of the bill introduction and testimony (starts at 9:58:45 PM): https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00327/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20220407/-1/13123
Mister Chair, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to present to you this evening.
My name is Jake Niece and I am a Ouray County Commissioner, Ouray County is also a member of Colorado Communities for Climate Action. I am here to support this bill.
Ouray County is a small rural county of about 5,000 permanent residents in southwest Colorado. We are lucky to have two recycling operators in the region - a small local operator and a large nationwide company. But lower volumes of materials and longer hauling distances make for thin margins in rural areas.
With the limited time I have here I want to comment on the paradigm changing nature of shifting responsibility for single-use packaging waste from individual members of the public, onto the companies that produce the waste.
The “Keep America Beautiful” ad campaign in the 1970s, conducted by leading beverage and packaging corporations, convinced the public to carry the financial burden of recycling – collecting, sorting, washing, baling, reselling, remanufacturing. Many individuals also carry the emotional guilt that those individual recycling actions are never enough, and never have been enough. Especially as we learn that the majority of supposedly recyclable materials in Colorado are never remanufactured into anything useful, and are landfilled or incinerated instead.
The public should not carry this burden.
Finally a request. I recognize this bill focuses on packaging materials, but I ask that you expand the producer responsibility concept to Colorado’s clean energy transition. And require end of life recycling plans for electric vehicle and utility-scale batteries, solar panels, wind turbine blades, and the associated electronics.
Let’s apply the circular economy thinking being pioneered in this bill, to new high environmental impact industries before they become environmental waste problems too.
Thank you committee members and I’m happy to answer any questions.
