While over 70 percent of U.S. cities directly manage their residential waste like other basic utilities, much of the Mountain West traditionally has taken a very hands-off approach. Residents and businesses throughout the region contract independently for trash and recycling services. The practice has contributed to abysmal recycling rates and excessive truck traffic with some cities having trucks from six to eight companies providing residential waste collection services. This increases the cost of road maintenance, leads to safety concerns and further, cities have little to no influence or control over the services provided.
Yet if we are to work within the Mountain West’s traditions to reach our zero waste goals, including the emissions associated with our consumption, the region’s public sector needs to emphatically embrace its role in shaping waste management policy and priorities. While for-profit companies can and do play an important implementation role, the people and their public officials need to direct traffic and ensure that the private sector delivers services and products that further the public good.
Boulder provides a good model of the marriage between tradition and sustainability. In contrast to communities with municipal control over waste hauling and landfill fee structures, state mandates or higher landfill tip fees that encourage zero waste investments, Boulder relies on a strong network of nonprofit, for-profit, governmental and community partnerships. In this context, the city of Boulder plays an integral role in facilitating a community vision around zero waste, establishing policy to create a level playing field for everyone and working with community partners to collaboratively build infrastructure and deliver strategic programs and services.
Home to more than 108,000 sustainability-inclined residents and 10,000 businesses, Boulder is painfully aware of our carbon and natural resource footprints. We know from the EPA that consumption emissions — from producing, using and disposing of our “stuff” and food — account for some 42 percent of U.S. emissions. Moreover, recent studies indicate that in U.S. cities such as Boulder, consumption emissions eclipse our electric, gas and transportation footprints.