Residents who want to recycle more — and recycle better — packed the American Legion Hall on Wednesday morning for a League of Women Voters of Estes Park presentation on waste management in the Estes Valley.
The Learn with the League program featured staff from the Larimer County Solid Waste Department, who outlined current waste operations, upcoming projects, household hazardous waste services, and changes coming to recycling across Colorado.
Presenters included Alex Studee, business project manager; Braden Eidem, Larimer County household hazardous waste technician; and Abby Kotecki, environmental educator.
Studee said Larimer County is preparing for major changes as the county’s current landfill nears capacity. He described work underway on the new landfill north of Wellington, which is expected to open in July, along with a central transfer station that will help move waste from the county’s existing landfill site to the new facility.
The new landfill will be a modern facility designed with extensive environmental protections, including groundwater monitoring, gas collection, and leachate collection systems.
The county’s long-range solid waste infrastructure plan also includes future diversion projects aimed at keeping more material out of the landfill, including construction and demolition processing, yard waste composting, and food waste composting.
Studee highlighted efforts to expand landfill gas collection. The gas, made up largely of methane and carbon dioxide, is currently flared, but county officials hope to eventually put it to beneficial use, such as generating electricity or cleaning it for pipeline use.
Eidem focused on Larimer County’s household hazardous waste program, which, since its start in 1989, has diverted more than 45 million pounds of hazardous materials from the landfill.
The county’s hazardous waste facility, open to Larimer County residents free of charge, accepts materials such as paints, cleaners, pesticides, batteries, aerosol cans, and other household chemicals. Eidem said the facility also runs a “drop and swap” program, allowing residents to pick up lightly used chemicals at no cost.
In 2025 alone, the facility served more than 25,000 customers and facilitated the reuse, recycle, or disposal of nearly one million pounds of business materials, according to Eidem.
For Estes Park residents, Eidem highlighted a household hazardous waste collection event scheduled for Sept. 19, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Estes Park Events Complex. The event will accept common household chemicals and batteries, though not fluorescent bulbs, mercury devices, or lead-acid batteries.
Kotecki’s presentation centered on recycling education, contamination, and Colorado’s evolving recycling policies. She reviewed what is currently accepted in Larimer County’s single-stream recycling system, including metal food and beverage cans, glass food and beverage containers, plastic bottles, jugs, tubs, and jars, and clean paper and cardboard.
She urged residents not to “wish-cycle” by tossing questionable items into the bin and hoping they can be recycled.
“If they are bagged, we will not sort them,” Kotecki said, explaining that recyclables placed in plastic bags are typically pulled from the stream and sent to the landfill.
She also stressed that food contamination remains one of the biggest obstacles to successful recycling. Containers should be mostly clean and dry before being placed in the bin, she said.
Kotecki addressed common misconceptions, including the belief that recycling is simply landfilled or shipped overseas. She said recyclables collected in Larimer County are processed domestically, provided they are the correct materials and not contaminated.
Another focus of the presentation addressed the passage of HB 22-1355, which created the Colorado Producer Responsibility Program.
Under the law, companies that sell packaging and paper products in Colorado will help fund recycling services rather than relying primarily on residents and local governments to bear the cost.
Kotecki said the program is expected to make recycling more accessible, expand the list of accepted materials, and create more opportunities for education and outreach.
In Larimer County, recycling rates were about 15 percent in 2022, which is lower than the national average, Kotecki said. The goal of the new statewide system is to significantly increase that by 2035.
After the presentations, a question-and-answer exchange showed both strong interest and lingering frustration among Estes Valley residents, many of whom raised concerns about limited recycling options, the impact of tourism on waste generation, and the need for better education for visitors and businesses.
Several attendees said Estes Park’s distance from Front Range facilities and its seasonal visitor economy create challenges that differ from those in other parts of Larimer County. Others asked for more local sorting options, expanded glass recycling, and more support for small businesses and residents trying to reduce landfill waste.
The presenters acknowledged those concerns and said Estes Park remains a priority for future improvements.
Kotecki said the county plans to continue working with local governments and residents as the new state recycling system is rolled out.
“We hear the cry for help loud and clear,” Studee told the audience. “There’s room for improvement, and you’re going to see those improvements.”
At the close of the meeting, residents shared additional ideas, including better outreach to tourists, pressure on retailers to reduce hard-to-recycle packaging, and greater use of local media to educate the public about recycling.
Estes Park Mayor Gary Hall summed up the mood of the room: “Slow is good, as long as we’re heading in these wonderful directions. It’s so great that you have the vision. We get impatient up here. We want to be able to recycle more and all of these different pieces, but the vision is wonderful, and you’re getting there.”