By Jesse Jones, The Paper. — A proposed City Council ordinance tackles two recycling gaps at once: expanding recycling access to renters in smaller apartment buildings and requiring city-owned buildings to provide recycling services.
Current city code only requires apartment buildings with 25 or more units to provide recycling, leaving many renters without guaranteed service. Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn’s ordinance would expand that requirement to all multifamily properties and require the city to place accessible recycling containers at each location instead of only charging a collection fee. Even larger properties that already pay the city’s recycling fee are not required to make containers accessible to residents, according to a newsletter from Fiebelkorn’s office. The proposal includes a hardship exemption for properties where physical or structural issues make container placement impossible, but cost alone would not qualify, according to the newsletter.
The proposed ordinance also requires municipal operations to meet the same standard. It would create a new city ordinance to require the mayor to establish and maintain recycling service at all city-owned and city-operated buildings. The city would have to place containers in locations accessible to employees and the public, and existing municipal contracts would need to add recycling service when the city renews or revises them.
The measure is awaiting review by the Council’s Finance & Government Operations Committee, which meets again Aug. 10. If the full Council approves the measure, the city would have until Jan. 1, 2027, to expand recycling requirements to multifamily buildings and 180 days after the ordinance takes effect to add recycling at city-owned buildings.