Steamboat Springs City Council members moved to adopt a temporary ordinance aimed at incentivizing recycling efforts by commercial entities. Adopted on a first ordinance reading by council members, the new mandate comes a little more than a year after council enacted a March 2023 recycling ordinance requiring commercial waste customers to adjust their recycling capacity to at least 50% of their trash service capacity in terms of container sizes and collection frequency.
That ordinance, which requires 100% compliance by July 31, also establishes a waiver process whereby commercial customers could request the recycling capacity limit be reduced if they faced excessive costs and space constraints related to adding recycling capacity; or if they were sharing space with another commercial capacity or were able to make use of an alternative recycling option.
Given the high number of waiver applications received by the city, council members directed staff in September to create an administrative process to help reduce the number of waivers granted to commercial waste users claiming space constraint limitations. Steamboat Planning & Community Development Director Rebecca Bessey provided examples of the type of space constraints facing commercial trash customers by showing pictures where an existing dumpster is housed inside of a trash enclosure.