The cost to operate the City of Durango's Recycle Center Public Drop Off Services is more than the revenues. City staff have identified 3 options to balance the budget and would like community input.

The City of Durango provides curbside trash and recycling services to citizens within the city limits. The City also operates a public drop-off for recycling at the Recycle Center as a service to non-city residents who do not have access to recycling services or are unwilling to pay one of the private companies who offer curbside recycling. The City of Durango currently charges $1.00 per 60 gallons of recycling material at the public drop-off.

Historical use trends at the City's recycling public drop-off locations indicate that that the majority of the individuals that utilize the City's public drop-off services are La Plata County residents.  Based on the current transactions at the Durango Recycle Center and the limited recycling services that are available to county residents, it is anticipated that 85% of the annual Recycle Center use (32,400 transactions per year) can be attributed to county residents who recycle their single stream products at the facility.  The remainder of the transactions come from residents of other counties.

Currently, the public drop-off operations are running at a deficit as the revenues generated by the $1.00 per 60-gallons are not enough to meet the costs to operate. The drop-off is staffed during business hours in order to monitor the material dropped off to avoid contaminating the recyclables with non-recyclable material, or allowing harmful chemicals to be dropped off.

Total annual revenues are projected at $43,976 with annual costs projected at $69,000.  

City staff have identified three options to balance the revenue and costs at the Recycle Center Drop-off.  We are seeking input from the community - and especially from those who use the City's drop-off services - to help us select the best option.