SUBJECT:
Title
An Ordinance of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Erie Consenting to the Applicability of the Boulder County Commercial Waste Hauler Licensing Ordinance within the Town and Amending Title 4 of the Erie Municipal Code Accordingly
Body
DEPARTMENT: Public Works - Sustainability
PRESENTER: Tyler Kesler, Sustainability & Water Conservation Specialist
TIME ESTIMATE: 10 Minutes
only required for non-consent items
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Board of Trustees approve and Mayor sign the ReTRAC Ordinance
End
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND OF SUBJECT MATTER:
Background:
This ordinance will provide the town and its Sustainability Advisory Board the ability to begin collecting baseline waste diversion data through a standardized online reporting system called ReTRAC. This participation in the regional approach will allow for the aggregation of tonnage of all landfill, recycling, and composted materials throughout the Town of Erie. This data is crucial for making responsible, data-driven decisions to achieve recycling and composting priorities adopted in the Sustainability Master Plan.
Background: In 2017, the Colorado legislature has expressly empowered and endorsed local efforts “…focused toward the reduction of the volume …of the waste stream …through source reduction, recycling, composting, and similar waste management strategies,” and also recognizes that “improper disposal of solid wastes poses significant public health risks and environmental hazards.” C.R.S. § 30-20-100.5.
Historically, communities throughout the state were either using different tracking mechanisms or not collecting data at all. The disparate data collected in different formats made management of the regional wasteshed much more difficult. Therefore, it was decided that standardizing the reporting mechanism helps resolve this issue and improves our understanding of the wasteshed to better determine needs for new waste facilities or services.
To accomplish a more organized and regional approach, Boulder County’s Resource Conservation Division has taken the regional lead. The Town of Erie, along with all other incorporated communities in the county and general wasteshed, have been offered free access to ReTRAC if the town updates their codes to require registered haulers to report their tonnage to this system. To date, the cities of Louisville and Boulder have adopted ordinances and participate in ReTRAC. The City of Longmont and Town of Lyons are in process of or considering code changes as well. In each case, the ordinances require that haulers obtain an annual license from Boulder County. The hauler submits a Hauler Application Form and a Self-Certification Form, as well as a license fee payment, which funds the Resource Conservation Division’s program administration. Data collected on ReTRAC will also be available to the Town.
Five of the five haulers providing waste services throughout the Town of Erie are already familiar and registered in Boulder County and neighboring communities to provide data to the ReTRAC system and there will be no additional costs or staff impacts to these haulers.
Fiscal Impact: N/A
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Ordinance
2. C.R.S. 2017 pages 193-194
3. Sustainability Master Plan (page 31)