Colorado families are already paying up to double what we were for groceries and gas. The state legislature is trying to eek out another 3% to 4% from all of us – at a time when no one can afford to spend more on basic things. The Colorado Consumer Coalition supports participation in recycling and education programs, but we are against creating an unnecessary burden on businesses and consumers in this time of skyrocketing inflation, the supply-chain mess, and all of the other challenges we face coming out of a pandemic.

HB 22-1355, the producer responsibility tax, does not promote common sense measures or do anything to support public education for recycling – something which would actually increase our abysmally poor recycling rates in Colorado. This bill is bad for consumers, businesses and our state. There has not been enough research or consumer education on ways to improve our current system and increase recycling rates post-pandemic. Everyone should do their part to recycle items that we use every day – and many people got out of that habit during the lockdowns. In addition, less than half of the localities in our state have recycling services available and only 34% offer curbside services. This bill does not address the disparate locally controlled waste management system that we have in our state and puts all burden on a few select businesses that were not exempted from the tax.

Many proponents of House Bill 22-1355 are citing that the responsibility is put on some producers of packaged goods, rather than consumers. Though that is true – it unfairly forces taxes and blame on a small group of businesses – what they fail to mention is that this tax will be absorbed into higher prices for consumers, without actually promoting better recycling measures. This bill is not well planned out and is going to be poorly implemented by a third-party non-profit run by some of the businesses not subject to the tax. And we can’t forget to mention that it will immediately face legal challenges related to antitrust and consumer protection laws – not to mention a violation of both TABOR and last year’s Proposition 117 that require new taxes to go to a vote of the people.

The legislature should allow time for the study component of HB22-1159 to produce an analysis and opportunities assessment before moving forward with a producer-responsibility program. The proposed creation of this program in HB22-1355 – and the redundancy of the study that was added in a last-minute amendment – is an example of the legislature not promoting smart policy or advocating for the true needs of consumers. Without a full needs assessment and analysis before even discussing the pros and cons of such a program, the state would be setting into motion something that will likely not achieve the stated goals of the bill sponsor. Similar programs in Canada have only increased recycling rates by 1% in a place with a universal waste management system already in place. This is not the right solution for Colorado.

Inflation is around 8% and it’s no surprise that we are likely heading into a recession. With a recession comes layoffs, and businesses struggling to pay employees are also going to struggle by paying an additional tax to fund a statewide recycling program when we have no understanding of how it will be implemented, no projections of its success rate and no actual plan for how it will work.

This is not the time to tax businesses and spend our state’s resources on a program that could well have a very low return on investment in terms of increased recycling rates. We urge Gov. Jared Polis to see past the smokescreens put up by the proponents and veto this bill. Colorado must wait to implement such a program until we know the outcome of the full needs assessment.

We all want to make Colorado a great place to live, but in order to implement a statewide recycling program, we are going to need a market-needs assessment done before placing all responsibility on only a few businesses that were not able to get an exemption from this program. Nothing is ever “free,” and the fees associated with such a boisterous program will be absorbed through higher costs on all the goods consumers buy every day.

Jaime Gardner is the executive director of the Colorado Consumer Coalition.