Boulder To Start “Organics” Recycling

Before Boulder residents start recycling organics, elected officials will have to sort through a few tough issues. Some of the issues include whether to get rid of the popular city-sponsored yard cleanup programs, and whether leaving out food scraps could be too tempting for bears and other wildlife.

During a brainstorming session Tuesday night, the Boulder City Council gave the nod to the city staff to bring forward a “curbside organics” program, which would allow trash haulers to pick up food waste, yard waste and other material to be composted.

The opportunity to pick up that material will start in early summer. Boulder County’s recycling plant switches to single-stream recycling in May. That step will eliminate the need for haulers to make two stops for different kinds of recyclables.

Shireen Miller, the city’s waste-reduction coordinator, explained the spring and fall cleanup programs have been hard on the department’s budget because costs are tough to estimate.

“We’re charged by volume, and we have no way of predicting whether there’s going to be a huge storm, or whether a large number are going to participate each year,” she added.

Officials hope they can eliminate the cleanup programs as residents rid themselves of their yard waste through curbside recycling instead.