Waste Diversion in Mountain Towns: Recycling Ordinances, Zero Waste Events, Community Education, and Packaging EPR

Project Overview

Mountain towns face a particular set of waste challenges: heavy visitor traffic, large special events, seasonal and short-term rental turnover, multifamily housing with little storage space, bear-country trash rules, and long distances to recycling markets. The panel shows how a combination of local policy, partnerships, education, and state policy can move diversion rates steadily upward.

Vail’s recycling rate rose from 9% in 2014 to 37%. The starting point was a 2014 universal recycling ordinance that required all residents and businesses to recycle, paired with pay-as-you-throw pricing (smaller trash cans cost less) and an education brand, Love Vail, backed by business visits and door-to-door outreach. When the rate stalled around 25%, the town added organics diversion, special event programs, and creative reuse options.

Special events are a major waste source. Vail hosts about 75 special events and roughly 200 event days a year. Its Celebrate Green effort began in 2012 when the farmers market asked for recycling and compost service, and it has grown through a partnership with Walking Mountains Science Center, whose zero waste events team staffs sorting stations and does the back-end sorting at events as large as the GoPro Mountain Games (about 90,000 attendees).

Walking Mountains reports an average event diversion rate that rose from 78% in 2021 to 86%, across 126 event days in 2023 alone. Avon’s summer concert series reached about 92 to 93%. Their key tools are early goal-setting with organizers, post-event reports, and a non-compliance fee for vendors who bring non-compostable service ware.

Avon adopted its first universal recycling ordinance in September 2022, effective November 1, 2023, and built a Recycle Together campaign from scratch to prepare residents. Its centerpiece is Trash Talk Thursdays, a series of short videos answering questions submitted by community members, shared on YouTube, social media, and local Channel 5.

At the state level, Colorado’s packaging EPR law (HB22-1355, passed in June 2022) makes packaging producers fund the recycling system through a producer responsibility organization. Circular Action Alliance was approved as Colorado’s PRO in 2023 and is running a statewide needs assessment that will shape a program plan, including universal access to recycling for residents and multifamily housing.

Town of Vail: ordinance, pricing, organics, and reuse

Vail’s 2014 universal recycling ordinance required recycling for all residents and businesses and was developed with significant stakeholder engagement. Pay-as-you-throw pricing gave households a direct financial reason to shrink their trash. The Love Vail brand served as the town’s “how to recycle right” education platform, supported by in-person help setting up business programs and door-to-door visits with residents.

To get past a plateau of about 25%, Vail turned to organics, since food waste in landfills produces methane. Working with local hauler Vail Honeywagon, the town launched a curbside compost pilot in West Vail and offers a subscription drop site for compost, plus a business compost pilot. Markham noted that the Town of Eagle took the curbside model and expanded it town-wide.

Vail’s recycling drop-off center includes a free ski and snowboard swap. Shops sometimes drop off 20 to 40 pairs of skis and they are gone within 24 hours, with almost no staff time required. The town also runs hard-to-recycle collection events funded by bag fees collected under Colorado’s statewide plastic pollution reduction law.

Walking Mountains Science Center: zero waste events

Walking Mountains grew out of Vail’s early farmers market pilot, which originally depended on recruiting volunteers every Sunday for 17 weeks. That proved hard to sustain, so the town and Walking Mountains created a sustainability internship program, initially with Colorado Mountain College students, to staff zero waste stations and sorting.

Kovach described two core strategies: clear communication and incentives. The team meets organizers in advance to align on broader sustainability goals (not just waste), provides post-event reports with improvement ideas, and charges organizers a non-compliance fee they can pass on to vendors who bring the wrong service ware. Local compost processing by Vail Honeywagon and Evergreen accepts compostable service ware.

Kovach also credited zero waste events with demonstrating public demand that helped lead to the Vail Honeywagon compost facility in Eagle County. She framed waste as one of the most approachable, low-barrier entry points to sustainability in a county where about 40% of residents are Spanish speaking, while stressing it should be a first step and not the whole climate plan.

Town of Avon: video-based recycling education

Avon built all of its Recycle Together content from scratch rather than reposting generic material, with the goal of real engagement. Trash Talk Thursdays videos are driven by questions residents submit, which creates a two-way relationship between the sustainability coordinator and the community.

Lin keeps videos to about two minutes and uses visual backgrounds and quick editing in a short-form social video style. The series launched in January 2023, ahead of the ordinance taking effect. The campaign also produces door hangers, stickers, and social posts, printed on request to avoid leftovers, and repurposes social posts into videos. One episode tackles how to fit recycling into small multifamily spaces, a common question.

Next steps include a county styrofoam recycling program using a container-sized foam densifier (Lin cited a vendor, FoamCycle, whose unit reduces styrofoam volume by 90%) and a restaurant composting program that Avon and Vail hope to start with a pending USDA grant.

Colorado packaging EPR and Circular Action Alliance

Extended producer responsibility makes producers (mainly brand owners) responsible for the end-of-life management of their products. Colorado already has EPR for paint through PaintCare; HB22-1355 extends the concept to packaging, mostly the materials found in curbside recycling bins.

A producer responsibility organization sits between producers and local programs. It collects packaging data from producers, sets fees that cover the full cost of the system, and runs a needs assessment of current access, capacity, and gaps. Colorado’s needs assessment, conducted by HDR and Eunomia, ran from August 2023 to January 2024 and will inform a program plan with a statewide universal collection list and a requirement that listed materials actually be recycled.

Circular Action Alliance said Colorado’s packaging recycling rate is roughly 16 to 17%, leaving a large share of material going to landfill. EPR funding can pay for staff to work with multifamily property managers, address processing and end-market bottlenecks (including plastics 3 through 7), and support in-state end markets. Fees are designed to vary by recyclability, which pushes producers toward more sustainable packaging, and the law includes language to incentivize reuse. Jennifer Freeman of Swire Coca-Cola, speaking from the audience, noted that a companion end market development center funded by tipping fees supports this work, including composting.

Lessons Learned

Pair an ordinance with pricing and hands-on education

Vail’s universal recycling ordinance produced an immediate jump, but it was combined with pay-as-you-throw pricing, a recognizable education brand, and in-person help for businesses and residents. Avon followed the same path, launching its education campaign nearly a year before its ordinance took effect.

Add organics when recycling stalls

Once Vail’s recycling rate plateaued around 25%, organics diversion through a curbside pilot, a subscription drop site, and a business program opened the next tier of gains. Starting with a pilot in one neighborhood let the model be tested, and the Town of Eagle was able to adopt it town-wide.

Use partnerships and incentives for events

Volunteer-run event recycling was hard to sustain, so Vail partnered with Walking Mountains to build a paid internship model. Pre-event planning, post-event reports, and a vendor non-compliance fee helped push average event diversion from 78% to 86%.

Make education two-way, short, and local

Avon’s Trash Talk Thursdays answer residents’ own questions in videos of about two minutes, and local TV now asks for each new episode. Lin’s advice for staff nervous about video: start small, treat it like recorded public speaking, and reuse existing content across formats.

Multifamily and short-term rentals need ongoing outreach

Turnover makes multifamily buildings and short-term rentals the hardest audiences. Panelists recommended welcome packets, offering bins, periodic staff training for property and hotel managers, picture-based and multilingual materials, and content on fitting recycling into small spaces.

State EPR can fund what towns struggle to pay for

In states with packaging EPR, producer fees can cover universal residential access, multifamily service, and work on weak end markets. Towns can help shape the program by sharing data with the needs assessment, and towns in states without EPR may still benefit from new regional processing capacity.

Program Contacts

Emily Dennis, Zero Waste Lead (moderator), Walking Mountains Science Center
Beth Markham, Environmental Sustainability Manager, Town of Vail
Amelia Kovach, Sustainability Programs Coordinator, Walking Mountains Science Center
Charlotte Lin, Sustainability Coordinator, Town of Avon