HB26-1111: Pesticide Product Disposal & Container Recycling
GreenCO voted to oppose this bill in our Legislative Committee meeting on February 17, 2026. We support this idea in principle, but our members have experienced the effects of the Producer Responsibility Program (PRP) For Recycling established by HB22-1355, which is confusing, administered by an out-of-state company, and still has not established what the fees and penalties are for participating or not participating in the program. While pesticide containers are a small share of the overall challenge of packaging container recycling, they are complex because of the contents of the container. The administration of the PRP has led to questions about the proposed recycling program.
HB26-1111 allows the Department of Agriculture to engage contractors (possibly out of state) to administer this program. The program, if it wants space at the Department of Ag, has to pay rent for that space (admittedly this is true for all divisions at the Department of Ag). So is it truly a Department of Ag program? Or will there be a person hired at CDA to manage it, as well as an out-of-state contractor who is being paid to facilitate the program? What is the current rate for office space at CDA?
As a self-funded (fee-funded) program, this proposed program will theoretically not have a fiscal impact, but what are the proposed estimated costs? How many staff? What costs for contractors? How will these costs be funded while the program is getting set up and running – because there will be much work to be done before the first dollar is collected.
We appreciate that this is not a mandatory program for commercial and private applicators. However, we are concerned that the costs will be higher than anticipated and this will limit the willingness of applicators to participate. Will State of Colorado applicators be required to participate?
Pesticide providers (registrants) will be required to pay into the department a disposal and container recycling fee. Pesticide registrants, as well as any other manufacturers who produce the products in packaging, are already required to register with the Circular Action Alliance for the Producer Responsibility Program (PRP) For Recycling established by HB22-1355, to pay a fee on the packaging that is used for their products in Colorado. Will pesticide registrants be excluded from either of these fees because they are essentially being double charged? There is no indication in the PRP guidelines that there is an exclusion for Pesticide Manufacturers.
How will the registrant fee be determined – is it fair for a registrant who sells one truckload of product into Colorado to be charged the same fee as a registrant who sells 100 truckloads? Who will establish the penalties and when? It seems likely in the case of the PRP that larger producers of packaging, such as soda/been manufacturers, will likely pay the fine rather than track the weight of packaging used in Colorado each year. Admittedly some these items will be decided in rulemaking, but will the rulemaking be shaped to pay for the program? Or to create the most benefit? There is no fiscal note for this bill yet so it is unclear.
The program will be administered by the Colorado Ag Commission, whose members are certainly experts in agriculture but not necessarily in pesticides, pesticide disposal, and pesticide container recycling. The PRP board meets quite frequently and spends a great deal of time on the rules, regulations and definitions surrounding recycling. Is the Ag Commission aware of the possible time implications of being the oversight for this program as well as their other responsibilities. The rule-making around this program will likely be quite complex, as there are a wide range of products that can fall under the heading of pesticides – fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides, etc.
