The government will pay you $30 an hour to sort through Telluride’s trash in the name of social science – By Nancy Lofholm (Colorado Sun) / Feb 24, 2023
Picking through what’s left behind by high-season tourists will help towns in San Miguel County figure out how to change what people toss and why
Wanted in Telluride: a few good trash sorters.
These intrepid workers must be willing to sift through everything from diapers to dental floss, uneaten muffins to sushi scraps, abandoned clothing to junked electronics, rejected cosmetics to forsaken six packs.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been advertising for workers to fill these $30-an-hour jobs as part of its latest dive into the state of refuse in a resort town that collects extra heaps of garbage in high-visitation seasons. The study is designed to get a better handle on seasonal variations in waste and to use that information to help change trash-tossing behaviors in the future
Hired government researchers have been peering into the Telluride area’s trash for four years. Phase 1 of this trash study, called the “San Miguel County, Colorado Materials Characterization Report for Short-Term Condominium Rentals,” took a first look at what visitors to two mountain resort properties — one a luxe lodge and another a more affordable complex — tossed in the garbage in 2019 and 2021.
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