CO HB1047

Executive director of the Department of Public Health and Environment and the Commissioner of Agriculture must develop a statewide organics management plan by September 1, 2022, to study and recommend organic waste management practices that encourage compost use on Colorado soils to promote carbon storage.

Plan must include two comprehensive statewide surveys: an end-market survey examining costs, revenues, and greenhouse gas impacts of current uses for the four major organic waste categories (source-separated municipal solid waste organics, biosolids, dairy and feedlot manure, and forest waste); and a survey of existing organic waste generation facilities and processing capacity.

Plan must include a statewide organics management study examining the need for processing infrastructure expansion and increased compost utilization, including climate change impacts, cost-benefit analysis, and mechanisms to increase infrastructure expansion through tax credits, policy changes, funding sources, and sustainable financing options.

Plan must provide recommendations for increasing compost demand and utilization, including financial incentives for voluntary agricultural use, a state procurement standard for compost from state-permitted facilities in public projects, and sample procurement language for local governments requiring minimum organic matter in construction and landscaping projects.

Executive director shall submit a report summarizing the plan to relevant legislative committees by February 1, 2023, and publish it on the department's website; $150,000 is appropriated to the solid waste control program for 2020-21 to develop the plan; the article repeals effective September 1, 2023.