The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (“the department”) is proud to announce the implementation of a powerful new program assessment and planning tool to harmonize the measurement of local material management programs and to provide Colorado municipalities and counties with decision-making tools that can improve recycling program performance.
The department is working with Re-TRAC and The Recycling Partnership to offer the Municipal Measurement Program (MMP) to local and county government agencies in the state. By completing the MMP’s program assessment surveys, participants can generate reports to measure program performance and discover opportunities to improve waste and recycling programs. The MMP uses standardized terminology that empowers participants to benchmark performance metrics against national averages. The program also simplifies data management by centralizing all waste and recycling program information. Data collected in this program will help the department measure statewide performance and gain greater visibility into local efforts to reduce waste across the state.
The MMP is hosted in Re-TRAC, a web-based software system developed by Emerge Knowledge Design, Inc. The program is free to use and is now collecting data for calendar years dating back to 2014. On average, the program assessment surveys only take 90 minutes to complete. Once the surveys are complete, participants will unlock a suite of program performance and benchmarking reports such as:
- Annual trend: Monitor your annual performance metrics to analyze trends and identify opportunities to make program adjustments.
- Pounds per household: Analyze the pounds of waste, recycling, and yard and food waste generated by each household served by your agency’s programs.
- Annual tons per program: Measure the total tons of recycling, MSW (municipal solid waste), and organics captured by your curbside, drop-off, and public space collection programs.
- Pounds per household compared to the U.S. national average: Compare your agency’s pounds per household recycling performance to the U.S. national average.
We encourage all municipal, county and regional governments to join the MMP and we hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about your solid waste and recycling programs and contribute to the statewide measurement of recycling and waste reduction!
Need help filling out the surveys? Request technical support from a Re-TRAC team member.
Note to recycling grants applicants: Since this data is so important to developing a holistic view of waste diversion efforts and next steps for communities to contribute to Colorado’s waste diversion goals, all new local government recycling grant contracts under the Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity (RREO) or Front Range Waste Diversion (FRWD) programs will require grantees to complete the MMP surveys.
Contact
Erin Girard
303-692-2107
erin.girard@state.co.us