Colorado Disposal and Recycling Rules, Explained Locally

If you have moved here from the Southeast or the Midwest, most of what you believe about disposal rules is wrong in Colorado — not slightly wrong, structurally wrong. The state bans less than you expect, delegates more than you expect, and puts the decisive authority in places that would surprise you: a county board for landfills, an air quality division for asbestos, a fire district for fire code.

This is the plain-language version of the rules that actually govern what goes in a container in Kelim, Johnstown, Milliken and the rest of the corridor, with the citations, so you can check any of it yourself.

Who is in charge

Colorado’s solid waste rules live at 6 CCR 1007-2 in the Code of Colorado Regulations, administered by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment through its Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division. The regulation is in three parts. Part 1 — “Regulations Pertaining to Solid Waste Sites and Facilities” — is the operative one, and it is where landfills, transfer stations, composting, waste tires and asbestos waste are handled. Parts 2 and 3 deal with hazardous waste disposal siting and inspection.

The statutory backbone sits in the Colorado Revised Statutes: disposal sites and facilities at Title 30, Article 20, Part 1; disposal limitations at Part 10; waste tire strategy at Part 14; electronic device recycling at Title 25, Article 17, Part 3.

CDPHE’s solid waste program line is 303-692-3320; the division’s main number is 303-692-2000.

The Colorado structure that catches everybody out: the Certificate of Designation

In most states a landfill is state-permitted and that is the end of it. In Colorado it is not.

C.R.S. § 30-20-102 provides that a person who owns or operates a solid wastes disposal site and facility shall first obtain a certificate of designation from the governing body having jurisdiction over the area, and that solid waste disposal is prohibited except at a site holding one. The regulation defines the certificate as a document issued by that governing body authorizing the use of land for a solid waste disposal site and facility, and CDPHE reviews it.

In plain terms: a Colorado landfill is authorized by the county, with state review. The landfills that serve this market hold certificates of designation from Weld County, and the operator fact sheets say so.

One clarification, because it matters and it is widely misunderstood: the certificate attaches to disposal facilities — the ground where waste is buried — not to trucks, containers or collection. It is a land-use authorization for a landfill, not a hauling credential.

What Colorado actually bans

Short list. That is the point.

Electronics — banned by statute

C.R.S. § 25-17-303: by 1 July 2013, a person shall not dispose of an electronic device or a component of an electronic device in a landfill in this state. CDPHE requires landfill operators and haulers to post signage, update their waste characterization plans and train staff to identify prohibited electronics.

You can see the ban working at the gate. Front Range Landfill, Buffalo Ridge and North Weld all list electronic waste among their prohibited materials. Televisions, monitors, computers, printers and their components need a recycler, not a container.

Waste tires — heavily restricted

6 CCR 1007-2, Section 10 provides that waste tires may be disposed of only by delivery to a generator engaged in waste tire collection, a processor, a monofill or a collection facility. Landfilling is a last resort on documented due diligence. Monofill storage closed to new tires after 1 January 2018 and all monofills had to close by 1 July 2024.

The number worth remembering is this one: no person may transport ten or more waste tires without CDPHE registration. Registered haulers manifest every load, keep manifests three years, file an annual report by 1 March and display a valid decal. Locally, the landfills refuse tires outright; Tire Mountain LLC at 12311 WCR 41 in Hudson, 888-356-1395, appears on Weld County’s own facility list as a tire disposal site.

What is not banned, and why that surprises people

Several states ban yard waste from lined landfills. Colorado does not appear to have a statewide yard waste landfill ban, and the evidence runs the other way: WM’s North Weld Landfill lists yard waste among accepted materials, and Front Range Landfill lists both yard waste and tree branches. A statewide ban could not coexist with permitted landfills advertising acceptance.

That is not the same as saying green waste should go to a landfill. Weld County alone has three permitted composting facilities — A-1 Organics at Eaton and Rattler Ridge, and Stromo LLC — which is a great deal of composting capacity for a county with no ban, and some towns and haulers route green waste separately by contract. Ask about the specific load. See our yard waste and brush guide and the yard waste service.

The finding that changes how you should think about all of this

Beyond the electronics ban and the tire rules, Colorado does not publish a single statewide list of prohibited wastes. Section 3 of the regulation instead requires each facility’s personnel training to ensure that hazardous waste, polychlorinated biphenyls and other prohibited wastes are identified and restricted from disposal — with those other prohibited wastes specified in the facility’s own approved engineering design and operations plan.

So the honest answer to “what can I not put in a dumpster in Colorado?” is: it depends which gate the load goes through. That is why the list below is organized by facility rather than by state.

What the local facilities take and refuse

WM North Weld Landfill — 40000 WCR 25, Ault, 970-686-2800. Operates under a Certificate of Designation from Weld County. Accepts construction and demolition debris, municipal solid waste, industrial wastes and yard waste. Refuses friable asbestos, hazardous waste, electronic waste, waste tires, bulk liquids and regulated radioactive materials.

WM Buffalo Ridge Landfill — 11655 WCR 59, Keenesburg. Certificate of Designation issued by Weld County. Accepts C&D debris. Refuses bulk liquids, electronic wastes, hazardous waste, lead-acid batteries, potentially infectious wastes, radioactive wastes, universal wastes and waste tires.

Waste Connections Front Range Landfill — 1830 WCR 5, Erie, 303-673-9431. Accepts clean fill and soil, concrete and asphalt, construction debris, furniture including couches and mattresses, farm waste, gas grills with the propane removed, household waste, non-electric lawn equipment with liquids removed, pianos, treadmills, tree branches, yard waste and selected appliances such as dishwashers, dryers, furnaces, water heaters, stoves and washers. Refuses air conditioners, batteries, biohazardous waste, electronic waste, freezers, hazardous materials, hot ashes, liquids including paint, oil and chemicals, mercury bulbs, refrigerators, propane containers, tires and toxic waste.

Front Range also publishes two operational rules worth pinning to a job trailer: all incoming loads are subject to random inspection, and all uncovered or unsecured loads will be charged double.

Larimer County Central Diversion and Transfer Station — 2388 W. Trilby Road, Fort Collins, (970) 498-5772, Monday to Saturday, gates closing promptly. This is the facility for Larimer County residents, and Kelim is in Larimer County. The old landfill on South Taft Hill Road is closed to general waste disposal and now handles commercial recycling, hazardous waste and electronics recycling. A new county landfill at 15669 North County Road 9 in Wellington opened on 3 August 2026 serving commercial haulers and the Wellington area. Larimer’s solid waste information is at larimer.gov.

Note what is not on any of those lists: a dedicated construction and demolition landfill. Colorado’s regulation does define a “Construction and Demolition Debris Facility” separately from a municipal solid waste landfill, but no C&D-only facility appears on the Weld or Larimer county lists. Locally, C&D goes to general landfills that also accept it. Our construction debris guide goes further into that.

Household hazardous waste, appliances and the things that need a different door

Weld County runs two household hazardous waste facilities, free to Weld County residents: 1311 North 17th Avenue, Greeley (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) and 5500 Highway 52, Dacono (Wednesday, Friday and Saturday). Phone (970) 400-2217. The limits are specific: nothing in containers over five gallons, no leaking containers, nothing in plastic bags, and 200 pounds per household per visit. Business waste is by appointment and is charged.

Critically, the HHW facilities do not take electronics or appliances. The county refers residents to CDPHE’s electronics recycler list and to third-party appliance services, and notes that refrigerant-bearing appliances need professional coolant removal before a scrapyard will accept them. Details at weld.gov.

On batteries, be careful with the reasoning. Buffalo Ridge lists lead-acid batteries as prohibited and Front Range lists batteries as prohibited, so they are refused at those gates. We have not found a Colorado statute banning them, so we will describe the operator rules rather than invent a law.

Asbestos is an air quality matter here

This is the reversal that catches contractors from other states hardest. In Colorado, asbestos abatement is regulated by CDPHE’s Air Pollution Control Division under Regulation 8, Part B, not by a solid waste program.

The single-family residential trigger levels are 32 square feet of surface area, 50 linear feet of pipe, or the volume equivalent of a 55-gallon drum — far tighter than the commercial numbers most people half-remember. Public and commercial buildings trigger at 160 square feet or 260 linear feet. A ten working-day notification is required before work begins, for abatement above trigger levels and for any demolition activity regardless of size. An inspection by a certified asbestos building inspector is required before renovation or demolition, with an exemption for buildings constructed after 12 October 1988 where documentation confirms no asbestos-containing materials were used. CDPHE asbestos: 720-507-5136.

Asbestos-containing material never goes in a rented container. North Weld Landfill refuses friable asbestos outright, and abatement waste is a regulated stream handled by certified contractors.

Who collects what, and who does not

Neither Weld County nor Larimer County collects residential waste. Weld’s health department describes its own role as interacting with compost and solid waste facilities through complaints, site inspections and investigations — regulatory oversight, not collection. Its direct residential services are the household hazardous waste facilities and the seasonal large item disposal voucher, which covers one truckload level with the bed rails or one trailer up to one ton, one per Weld County address.

The Town of Johnstown provides refuse collection by contract under Municipal Code § 7-61(a), and does not serve multifamily buildings of three or more units or commercial and industrial customers. Town-provided customers are billed monthly with their water bills under § 7-65(a), so the service follows the water tap.

One more Weld County provision that is genuinely useful: a landowner disposing of their own waste on their own property must submit a design and operations report to Weld County and to CDPHE for review and approval before disposing of it. Burying or burning debris on a rural property is not the free option it looks like.

The short version to keep on the job trailer

• Electronics: never. Banned from Colorado landfills since 1 July 2013.
• Tires: never in the container; the landfills refuse them, and ten or more in transit needs state registration.
• Asbestos: never. Ten working days’ notice to CDPHE, certified inspection, 32 square feet or 50 linear feet in a single-family home.
• Paint, chemicals, liquids, batteries, refrigerant appliances: household hazardous waste, (970) 400-2217.
• Yard waste: no statewide ban, and local landfills accept it — but composting is widely available and worth asking about.
• Cover the load. Front Range Landfill charges double for uncovered ones.

If you are not sure about an item, ask before it goes in the box rather than after. Call HJP Dumpster Rental at (970) 427-0341, or read our permits guide and FAQ.