Gov. Jared Polis declared the second annual Colorado Recycles Week on Monday, celebrating recycling in the state and addressing expanding access to recycling services.

Colorado currently recycles and composts less than 16% of annual municipal waste, less than half of the 35% national average.

“Coloradans invest in our future and that of our beautiful state by recycling,” Polis said. “Not only does recycling help preserve our ecosystems, it creates jobs in Colorado and contributes to our economic prosperity.”

According to the State of Recycling in Colorado report released Monday, state-wide recycling has actually decreased recently.

In 2019, Colorado’s recycling rate dropped from 17.2% to 15.9%. That year, Coloradans sent 6.1 million tons of municipal waste to landfills, over 90% of which could have been recycled or composted, the report said.

Cities including Boulder, Loveland, Aspen, Durango and Fort Collins were outliers in the report, leading state recycling efforts. In Boulder, 50% of the city’s waste is diverted from landfills.

“As we see from recent global environmental disasters and wildfire evacuations right here in our state, climate change is happening now,” said first gentleman Marlon Reis.

“We have a responsibility to safeguard our environment for ourselves and for the people of the future.”

The report said the most important step cities can take to increase recycling is providing curbside recycling to all residents.

Though this is already offered in cities like Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins, many cities like Colorado Springs, Aurora and Centennial don’t automatically provide residents with curbside recycling as a part of trash service.

This is significant because Front Range communities collectively produce about 87% of the state’s waste, the report said.

Front Range residents also produce more than 475 extra pounds of waste per person annually compared to residents in the Greater Colorado area.

As part of Colorado Recycles Week, Polis signed into law Senate Bill 20-055, taking steps to advance public education and market development for recycling in Colorado.

For last year’s Colorado Recycles Week, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment awarded over $2 million in grants to programs that aimed to reduce waste.