When the Denver City Council was discussing a controversial overhaul of the city’s garbage collection program this spring, some members argued that directly billing homeowners based on the amount of garbage they produced would be unacceptable. He lamented that it was half the scale.
They argued that the commercial sector, such as the construction industry, was the biggest contributor to the city’s waste stream.
In the November election, Denver voters will have the option to impose more responsibility for diverting recyclable and compostable waste from landfills to the commercial sector when they vote on Ordinance 306. Become.
The ordinance, dubbed Waste No More by its proponents, imposes recycling and composting requirements on a huge number of businesses in Denver today that aren’t covered by them. Contractors and the apartment industry are wary of the move.
“This is not causing people to create more waste. Ean Thomas Tafoya, author and co-director of the campaign behind it, spoke about 306’s purpose.
It requires construction and demolition projects for all apartments and condos with eight or more units, restaurants, hospitals, sports venues, food trucks, etc. that generate food waste and collect and recycle materials from cardboard to scrap metal. Food waste free commercial spaces must offer recycling services to their tenants and employees. Special events, such as the Taste of Colorado and Underground Music Showcase, require a waste diversion plan for city review.
The city is not required to provide garbage haulage services to commercial contributors, but the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure will be tasked with drafting full regulations, including setting fines and penalties for violators, per the wording of the ballot. . The city will also review annual waste plans from new classes of mandated recyclers and composters. All businesses should provide education on what types of waste go where on site or at events.
Tafoya, who is running for mayor in 2023, is the Colorado director of GreenLatinos, a national nonprofit focused on bringing together Latino leaders to address environmental issues. He is also a former city employee on Colorado’s Environmental Justice Task Force.
Keeping recyclable and compostable materials out of landfills is an important part of the city’s solid waste plan and critical to the city’s long-term climate change and sustainability goals. For people living in large apartment complexes, mandating the provision of these services also has to do with fairness, he said. Currently, landlords are not obligated to provide recycling or compost collection.
“As our city grows, we need to give people access to the resources to do the right thing,” Tafoya said.
More than 80% of the solid waste generated in Denver comes from large multi-family housing and commercial facilities, according to Tafoya.
This is consistent with data from the city’s Sustainable Resource Management Plan. Based on measured waste tonnage in 2020, industrial, commercial, and institutional, including multifamily housing, generated 46% of the waste generated that year. Construction and demolition waste added another 36% for a total of 82%. These two segments diverted waste from landfills at significantly higher rates than single-family homes and homes with seven units or less, city research showed.
Waste No More has come a long way to voters. Originally, Denver’s long eyed his 2021 vote. That title language was approved in his February 2021 and qualified for the September 2021 ballot.
An opposition committee was also formed last September. We raised $17,500 through contributions from the Colorado Home Builders Association, the Downtown Denver Partnership, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, and others. The committee has not been active this year.
“It’s purely a feature of being so popular based on polls that it doesn’t make sense,” said Drew, senior vice president for government affairs at Metro Denver’s Apartment Association, another organization that gave the opposition Hamrick said. committee last year.
Hamrick emphasized that his industry supports recycling. He estimates that his 80% of all apartment complexes in metropolitan areas offer recycling. Tenants want it.
However, in many cases, it is not clear how Ordinance 306 works when providing compost in a limited space, and what happens when containers become contaminated with materials that are neither compostable nor recyclable. he is still concerned. People throwing garbage.
“Our biggest fear with this ordinance is not what the ordinance says. Garbage haulers … will impose hefty fines for pollution on their services and we will have to work with them.” “So there’s nothing we can do about it,” Hamrick said. about it.”
Hamrick said the move was also unfair. Denver’s Paid Trash Program will make all recycling and composting services free for homeowners starting in 2023, but currently charges based on the size of the trash. But when Section 306 comes into effect, the landlord will pass the cost on to the tenant, and the tenant living in the apartment complex will bear the cost of all three types of waste collection for her.
Denver members of the Colorado Restaurant Association are unconcerned about what the ordinance means to them after discussing it earlier this year.
“In general, the Mile High chapter of the CRA supports the intentions behind the initiative, so we are neutral,” said Dennis Mikkelsen, a spokeswoman for the association.
