Pesticide Product Disposal & Container Recycling

Plain English Breakdown

The official text does not provide a specific start date for program operations, only the reporting deadline of 2028.

Pesticide Product Disposal and Container Recycling Enterprise

This law creates a government-owned business inside the Department of Agriculture to manage safe disposal events for pesticides and recycle their containers.

What This Bill Does

• Creates an enterprise within the Department of Agriculture run by the State Agricultural Commission.
• Organizes state-wide events where commercial and private applicators can safely dispose of eligible pesticide products.
• Provides education to commercial and private applicators on proper disposal and container recycling.
• Charges a fee for each eligible pesticide product that is disposed of through the program.
• Requires applicants registering new pesticides in Colorado to pay a registration disposal fee of up to $50 per product.

Who It Names or Affects

• Commercial applicators who use pesticides as part of their business.
• Private applicators, such as farmers or gardeners using pesticides on their own property.
• Companies that register pesticide products for sale in the state.
• The Department of Agriculture and its new enterprise board.

Terms To Know

Enterprise

A government-owned business unit created to run a specific program, similar to how a company operates but owned by the state.

Eligible pesticide products

Pesticide items that are allowed in the disposal program and not exempted by the board of directors.

Applicant

A person or company that registers an eligible pesticide product with the Commissioner of Agriculture for sale or distribution in the state.

Limits and Unknowns

• The law does not specify when the program will officially begin operations, only that annual reports must start in 2028.
• The specific list of which pesticides are exempt from the disposal fee is decided by the board and not listed in this summary.

Official Summary Text

The act creates the pesticide product disposal and container recycling enterprise (enterprise) in the department of agriculture (department). The board of directors of the enterprise (board) consists of the members of the state agricultural commission.
The enterprise is tasked with developing and administering a program for the disposal of pesticide products not identified as exempt from the program by the board (eligible pesticide products) and with coordinating the recycling of pesticide product containers (program). Along with providing these business services, the program must:
Organize eligible pesticide product disposal events for commercial applicators and private applicators across the state;
Provide outreach and education to commercial applicators and private applicators on proper and safe disposal of eligible pesticide products and the recycling of their containers and the services provided by the program; and
Provide certain business services to an applicant that registers an eligible pesticide product with the commissioner of agriculture for sale or distribution in the state (applicant).
The enterprise operates as a government-owned business imposing:
A pesticide product disposal fee for each eligible pesticide product that is disposed of through the program; and
A pesticide registration product disposal fee on each applicant, which fee must be no more than $50 per eligible pesticide product.
The fees are credited to the pesticide product disposal and container recycling enterprise cash fund (fund) for use by the enterprise to carry out the program. Money credited to the fund is continuously appropriated to the enterprise for the purposes set forth in the act.
Commencing in 2028, the enterprise must annually report to the legislative committees with jurisdiction over agricultural matters the following information for the previous 12 months: the amount of fees collected, the total revenue generated by the fees, the location and times of disposal events held, a summary of the amount and types of products disposed of, and a description of education and outreach activities conducted.
$19,875 is appropriated from the legal services cash fund to the department of law to provide legal services for the department in implementing the act. The appropriation is from revenue received from the department that is continuously appropriated to the department from the fund.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)