Despite initiatives aggressively geared toward making Boulder earn its green reputation, the new Universal Zero Waste Ordinance, which got universal approval during a first reading in front of the Boulder City Council on May 5, suggests the community may need an extra push to achieve its zero waste aspirations.
The ordinance would require that recycling and composting services be provided at virtually every business where food waste is created, compostable materials are used or recyclable products are generated.
When the city’s Zero Waste Resolution passed in 2006, fulfilling the goal of 85 percent waste diversion by 2017 seemed to underestimate the city’s potential. But, in a report published by the City of Boulder this February, the city’s diversion rate increased by just 3 percent between 2004 and 2013.
“What’s happened is that despite a lot of educational outreach on the part of groups like Eco-Cycle and the City of Boulder, the city’s [waste] diversion rate is kind of stuck at 32 or 33 percent,” says Harlin Savage, communications manager at Eco-Cycle.
The single-family residential diversion rate rose from 48 to 54 percent between 2004 and 2013, and the multi-family residential rate rose from 14 percent to just 21 percent over the same period. Even more importantly, despite a significant increase in the waste stream produced by Boulder’s commercial and industrial sectors over the same 10-year period, its diversion rate remained stagnant, hovering at 28 percent.
The mentality behind the new ordinance is simple — the majority of businesses in Boulder want to provide recycling and composting services, but they’re often met with opposition and obstacles, particularly when they operate in leased spaces.
“There are lots of places in town where businesses didn’t even know that they had access to recycling service because the recycling bins are far away and they never saw them,” says Kara Mertz, local environmental action manager for the City of Boulder. “And the flip side is that we didn’t just want to require businesses to do it because we also have situations in town that we know of where the businesses are requesting recycling and then the property owner is like, ‘No, I don’t have space,’ or ‘I don’t want to deal with it,’ or ‘Not everyone wants it.’ There’s kind of that mismatch. So we wanted to make sure that it was required on both sides.”
The ordinance will require that property owners maintain a valid contract with haulers to remove compostables and recyclables, and the containers “must be at least as conveniently located as trash and be of adequate size and number to prevent compostables from being mixed with trash,” according to a draft of the ordinance dated Jan. 23. Signs are also required at each container, with Spanish and English text or picture-only identification.
“Once council adopts the ordinance, there will be at least one year before businesses and property owners will have to comply,” Mertz says.
With food-generating businesses required to compost, finding local end markets for the new influx of food waste is one of the challenges the City Council will have to address.
“There are some challenges with composting because composting is, compared to recycling, is pretty local,” Savage says. “Because landfill fees are incredibly low in Colorado … it can be challenging for it to make economical [sense], particularly if you have to drive a truck 60-70 miles to drop off the compost.”
Western Disposal Services, a private business that isn’t available to all of the public, owns the only composting infrastructure located locally in Boulder. While the company is willing to open its doors to other commercial haulers if the new ordinance passes, Bryce Isaacson, vice president of sales and marketing at Western Disposal, says that the council will also be reviewing other options for Boulder’s food waste, specifically a new anaerobic digester in Weld County. The digester, which will be fueled by A-1 Organics, takes food waste and manure and harvests methane from them, creating renewable natural gas.
With unanimous approval from the Boulder City Council on its first reading on May 5, the city will be presented with a draft of the Universal Zero Waste Ordinance on May 19.
“It’s really exciting because this ordinance has the potential to transform waste collection in Boulder,” Metz says. “And the idea that a year from now, no matter where you go, if there’s a trashcan you’ll have the opportunity to see a recycling and a compost container near it. It’s huge, really. I think it will put Boulder back on the forefront of cutting edge communities around the country that are working toward zero waste.”
