Business wanted, multi-family recycling service for early March

After more than a decade of requiring recycling services for single-family homes and two-story homes, Steamboat Springs is on track to mandate commercial recycling for commercial and multifamily buildings in March.

Steamboat Springs City Council has directed staff to hold public consultation meetings before the ordinance’s first reading, which is scheduled for Feb. 7. Attendance at the input meetings was modest, with most participants asking questions and voicing support for the proposed ordinance, Winnie Delli Quadri said. City Special Projects and Government Services Manager

The biggest concern expressed by business owners was that they had enough space for more containers in places where landfills are tightly packed, especially in downtown Steamboat, to recycle, Daly Quadri said.

City staff are planning four clustered recycling drop-off locations in the downtown area for use by subscribers. The locations include city-owned locations near the Back Door Grill on Eighth Street, near Clyde’s Place on Seventh Street, at 840 Yampa St. On the street and on the grounds of the town hall.

If the City Council approves the ordinance, the requirements for waste pickers to provide services would be passed within 18 months.

Within the first six months, 33% of commercial recycling customers provide service, followed by 66% within a year and 100% within 18 months. Potentially problematic business locations with significant space constraints or cost constraints may request a two-year grace period. Alicia Archibald, community recycling coordinator, said the new ordinance also requires haulers to provide recycling collection capacity for half of their waste service.

Archibald is tasked with assisting business owners, residential buildings, HOAs, and other commercial recycling clients with a variety of items, such as educating employees on how to reduce pollution, establishing uniform signage, and providing information on state grant programs to help financially update commercial waste containers. Archibald can be reached by email at aarchibald@steamboatsprings.net..

In the year A 2020 Community Recycling survey found that 94% of respondents favored more commercial recycling, and 72% “strongly” supported the service. In addition to public interest, the city is working to increase total waste stream diversity to 46 percent by 2030 and 85 percent by 2050 to meet landfill goals set by the Rott County Climate Action Plan. A 2021 community recycling study by LBA affiliates in Denver found that the city’s recycling rate is 9%, with construction and demolition waste leading the list of materials sent to landfills.

Nick Sharp of the Rex Family of Restaurants and business owner Steve Caragol attended a public input meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 24, and expressed their support for the commercial recycling law.

“Rex always recycles and always will,” Sharp said, noting that the company’s restaurants partner with neighboring businesses to share landfill space. Sharp said the proposed ordinance is “probably a no-brainer.”

Caragol asked city staff to come up with several recommended landfill designs that would work for all landfills. Rebecca Bessey, the city’s director of planning and community development, said commercial developments built in Steamboat must include screening on three sides of an outdoor trash can and landfill.

The commercial program focuses on improving single-stream recycling of glass, metal, plastic No. 1 and No. 2, cardboard and paper materials. Current commercial recycling efforts are inconsistent in frequency, limited by recycled materials and plagued by high levels of contamination, Archibald said.

Win Cowman, director of waste disposal for the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council, said businesses cite space, cost, confusion and time as some of the complicating factors when considering recycling.

Lacy Coupe, supervisor and assistant general manager at Twin Enviro Services, said some businesses in Steamboat have opted for a cardboard-only recycling service, even though a more comprehensive single-stream service costs about the same.

One reason to continue the commercial recycling law, he said, is to strengthen processes and costs for recycling under the state’s new producer responsibility program, which is due to take effect in 2026.

The new state law, passed in June, is intended to raise annual fees paid by manufacturers of products that use packaging materials and paper products in Colorado to help fund recycling efforts throughout the state. In the year Beginning July 1, 2025, a producer may not sell or distribute products that use certain packaging materials in Colorado unless they participate in the program.

To reach Susie Romig, call 970-871-4205 or email sromig@SteamboatPilot.com.