Colorado's New Plan to Clean Up Old Pesticides—and Who's Paying for It

The Bottom Line

Colorado is creating a brand-new statewide program to help farmers, exterminators, and everyday businesses safely dispose of leftover pesticides and empty chemical containers. It's funded through new fees on chemical manufacturers and the folks who actually use the disposal services, meaning general taxpayers aren't footing the bill. If you use commercial-grade pesticides, you're about to get a much easier (and legal) way to clear out your storage sheds.

What This Bill Actually Does

Getting rid of commercial-grade pesticides isn't as simple as tossing them in the office dumpster. Right now, commercial and private applicators—think farmers, exterminators, and large-scale landscapers—can't just use residential hazardous waste programs. Because they handle high volumes of restricted-use chemicals, they have to navigate a maze of expensive, geographically scattered disposal facilities. This leads to old, compromised containers sitting in barns and sheds for years, drastically increasing the risk of chemical leaks into our soil and groundwater.

Enter HB26-1111. This legislation creates the Pesticide Product Disposal and Container Recycling Enterprise under the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Think of it as a government-run, self-funded business dedicated entirely to safely trashing old pesticides and recycling their containers. Starting in 2027, this enterprise will host predictable, geographically diverse disposal events across the state where applicators can drop off their unwanted chemicals. It also handles the heavy lifting of educating folks on safe disposal practices.

Because this is set up as an "enterprise" under Colorado law, it doesn't rely on general tax dollars. Instead, it pays for itself through two specific avenues. First, manufacturers who register pesticide products to sell in Colorado will pay a new annual fee. Second, the applicators who actually show up to use the disposal program will pay a user fee based on what they're getting rid of. The enterprise pools this money to contract with third-party hazardous waste firms, subsidizing the bulk of the disposal costs and making it significantly cheaper for everyone involved.

What It Means for You

For the average Colorado resident, this bill is fundamentally a public health and environmental safeguard. Even if you never touch a commercial pesticide in your life, you drink the water and eat the food grown in Colorado's soil. By giving the agriculture and pest control industries a reliable, heavily subsidized way to dispose of dangerous chemicals, this program drastically lowers the chances of those chemicals leeching into the local environment from rotting containers stored in some forgotten barn.

You won't see a new tax on your paycheck to fund this. However, it's worth knowing that the costs of doing business for chemical manufacturers are going up slightly. Starting January 1, 2027, manufacturers will pay a new Pesticide Registration Product Disposal and Container Recycling Fee (estimated by state financial analysts to be an extra $30 per registered product). While that's a drop in the bucket for massive agricultural corporations, it's possible you might see a tiny bump in the retail cost of specialized lawn care or extermination services down the road as those operational costs trickle down.

If you live in a rural area or near large agricultural operations, this is a massive win for your local watershed. Keep an eye out for these state-run disposal events popping up in your county over the coming years. If you happen to be a homeowner sitting on a large cache of specialized pesticides you bought years ago, you might finally have a safe, state-sanctioned way to get them off your property without driving halfway across the state and paying a small fortune.

What It Means for Your Business

If you own a farm, a commercial landscaping company, or a pest control business, this bill directly changes how you manage your hazardous waste. Starting in late 2026 and rolling into 2027, you'll no longer have to stockpile old chemicals or pay premium rates to private disposal sites. Instead, you can participate in the state's new disposal events. The best part? The state is pooling manufacturer fees to subsidize the first massive chunk of this waste. Current estimates suggest the program will cover the total cost for the first 100,000 pounds of pesticide product statewide each year. Once that cap is hit, you'll pay an estimated $2 per pound—which is still highly competitive compared to private, unsubsidized alternatives.

If you manufacture or distribute pesticide products and register them in Colorado, your compliance costs are going up. Starting January 1, 2027, you will be required to pay the new annual fee for every product you register in the state. While the exact fee will be set by the Department of Agriculture's enterprise board, financial projections estimate it will be roughly a $30 increase on top of your existing $205 registration fee. The tradeoff is that this state-run program actively supports your corporate product stewardship goals and reduces your liability for what happens to your chemicals at the end of their life cycle.

There is also a hidden opportunity here for businesses in the waste management sector. The state enterprise won't be disposing of these chemicals themselves; they are going to contract the work out. If your company handles hazardous waste transportation, recycling, or disposal, the state will be looking for partners. The enterprise is expected to spend around $300,000 in its first year just on third-party disposal contracts, with that number growing to nearly $375,000 by year two. It's worth getting your bids ready and keeping an eye on the Department of Agriculture's procurement requests.

Follow the Money

This program is designed to be entirely self-sustaining. Because it operates as a state "enterprise," its funds are separate from the state's General Fund and are exempt from TABOR limits. The enterprise is projected to bring in roughly $544,000 in its first full year (FY 2026-27), entirely from the new fees placed on the roughly 18,000 pesticide products registered in Colorado. By FY 2027-28, as the applicator disposal fees kick in for the waste exceeding the subsidized limits, total revenue is expected to jump to about $744,000 annually.

Where is that money going? A big chunk goes directly toward subsidizing the physical disposal of the chemicals—projected at $300,000 for third-party contracts in the first active year. The rest covers the Department of Agriculture's operational overhead, including hiring a program administrator, a $200,000 upfront investment to build out the IT database for registration and tracking, and statewide outreach campaigns. Ultimately, zero general taxpayer dollars are required to keep this running, and no money is pulled away from other state services.

Where This Bill Stands

HB26-1111 is currently Signed Into Law. The latest official action came on 05/26/2026: Governor Signed.

That means the legislative process is complete and the bill is now law. The remaining questions are about implementation timing and how agencies, businesses, or local governments respond.