Getting Recycling Right for All Coloradans

A new era of recycling is coming to Colorado—now’s our chance to protect responsible recycling statewide.

Protecting Colorado’s Producer Responsibility Law from Greenwashing

Thanks to the Producer Responsibility for Packaging and Paper Products Act (HB22-1355), passed in 2022, companies that sell products in packaging and paper will begin funding Colorado’s recycling system in 2026.

This new system guarantees:

Free, convenient, and consistent recycling for every Colorado resident.
Funding of recycling by producers, not consumers.
Incentives for companies to reduce packaging, design for reuse, and use more recycled materials.

This approach of providing incentives—called eco-modulation—uses financial rewards and penalties to push companies toward more sustainable packaging that uses more Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) content.

But for this system to work, we must close loopholes that some in the plastics industry are trying to exploit.

Threats to Colorado’s New Recycling System

Coloradans deserve to know that what we place in the bin is truly recycled into new products. Unfortunately, some in the plastics industry are misleading the public through deceptive accounting methods to exaggerate recycling rates and claims of recycled content.

Proportional vs. Non-Proportional Accounting Methods

Traditionally, recycled content is measured through proportional and verifiable allocation methods. However, some in the plastics industry are promoting non-proportional credit methods (e.g., “free allocation,” “polymer only”). Here’s the difference:

Proportional and Verifiable Accounting Methods:

The proportion of recycled material versus virgin material is tracked all the way through the manufacturing process, ensuring that the amount of recycled content reported in packaging reflects the actual amount used. This approach is the standard in mechanical recycling of glass, metal, paper, and recyclable plastics, where the physical mass of the material can be reliably followed from start to finish. These methods provide accurate and transparent accounting of recycled content.

Non-Proportional Accounting Methods (e.g., “free allocation,” “polymer only”):

Instead of tying recycled content directly to the material flow, companies assign “credits” for recycled material in ways that don’t reflect reality—for example, claiming recycled content from one product in another package, or counting chemical byproducts that never return to plastics as “recycled content.” These accounting tricks, often used in chemical recycling, let companies market packaging as “greener” than it truly is and charge higher prices without actually increasing the amount of recycled material in the packaging. These methods allow for inflated or misleading claims about recycled content.

While these accounting methods may sound technical, the choice between proportional and non-proportional systems has very real consequences: it can decide whether recycling claims reflect reality or mislead the public.

Here’s how non-proportional methods create problems.

Problem #1: Counting Plastics Used as Fuels as “Recycled”

Draft plans would allow plastic that’s used as fuel or turned into fuel through certain chemical or “advanced” recycling processes to be counted as “recycled.”

>> But using plastics as fuels or turning them into chemicals that will later be used as fuels are types of incineration, not recycling. It creates pollution and harms health. Further, destroying the plastics guarantees they can never become new products, which perpetuates and exacerbates the need to extract more raw materials.

Solution:
Colorado must require a proportional and verifiable accounting system that only counts plastics as recycled if they are turned into new products. Just as glass becomes new bottles and aluminum becomes new cans, only plastics made into new plastic products should count as “recycled.”

Problem #2: Misleading Claims on Packaging Through “Free Allocation” and Other Non-proportional Accounting Methods

Under Producer Responsibility, companies that use less packaging or more recycled content will pay less. This rewards sustainability—unless companies cheat the system.

Some plastics producers want to exploit a loophole created through “free allocation” and other non-proportional accounting methods that don’t verifiably track the full recycling process in order to mislead customers about the amount of recycled content in packaging.

Think of it like coffee:
Imagine a coffee company that sells bags mixed with 50% decaffeinated and 50% regular beans. Through free allocation, the company could make the claim that half the bags contain 100% decaf and the other half contain 100% regular caffeine coffee, by allocating the percentage of decaffeinated content from one bag to another. That’s free allocation (NOT the same as proportional allocation)—allocating recycled-content claims from one product to another product, even those without any recycled content.

The result? Companies could market their packaging as “100% recycled” when the packaging some customers receive actually contains very little or no recycled plastic. Even worse, they could count chemical byproducts from chemical or advanced recycling that is turned into fuel and will never become plastic again as part of the recycled content in their packaging.

>> Under non-proportional credit methods, including free-allocation and “polymer only” accounting, producers could receive incentivizing eco-modulation bonuses allowing them to pay less into the Producer Responsibility system by claiming higher recycled content in the packaging they sell in Colorado than they would be able to claim if they had to account for the true amount of recycled material in their packaging.

Solution:
Colorado must require proportional and verifiable accounting methods for plastics, like those used to calculate recycled content of glass, paper, and metal. Producers should only be able to claim the amount of recycled content that can be transparently and verifiably shown to be proportionately reflected in their packaging.

Let’s Build a Recycling System We Can Trust

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform how Colorado recycles—making it more accessible, effective, and transparent. But we must ensure the system is trustworthy and reliable. To protect the integrity of our new Producer Responsibility system, we must demand:

Plastics used as fuel or converted into chemicals that will become fuel should never count as recycling.
Post-consumer recycled content claims must be transparent, verifiable, and proportionately reflect the real recycled content in packaging.
Eco-modulation must reward honesty: only companies that truly reduce, reuse, include more recycled content, and eliminate toxic chemicals intentionally added to their packaging should receive financial benefits.

This is the only way to build public trust and ensure that Coloradans continue to recycle.

Take Action: Protect Colorado’s Recycling System

Let’s make sure this new system works—for all Coloradans. Your voice will help make sure Colorado’s new recycling system is one the public can trust.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is reviewing the program plan and taking public comment until September 14, 2025.

YOU can make a difference in just a few minutes. Here’s how:

Email [email protected]
Use the subject line: “Program Plan Public Comment – [Your Last Name]”
In your message, ask CDPHE to:
- Require proportional, verifiable accounting only
- Require that the organizations implementing Producer Responsibility in Colorado, Circular Action Alliance (CAA) and Lubricants Packaging Management Association (LPMA) remove “free allocation,” “polymer only,” and other non-proportional credit methods from their draft plans.
- Ensure honest, accurate post-consumer recycled content (PCR) claims
Use this customizable sample public comment.

Recycling should reliably mean RECYCLING. Products should reflect the truth. And producers should be held accountable for what they create. Use your voice today to keep Colorado’s recycling system honest, strong, and built for the future.