7A - Item for Discussion: Recycling Efforts in Urban ParksDO NOT REMOVE -
PRAB F~le Mater~al
CITYOFBOULDER
~ PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD AGENDA ITEM
MEETING DATE: February 25, 2002
(Agenda Item Preparation Date: February 13, 2002)
AGENDA TITLE: Item for Discussion: Recycling Efforts in Urban Parks
REQUESTING DEPARTMENT: Jan Geden, CPRP, Director, Parks and Recreation
Doug Hawthorne, CPRP, Parks Superintendent
Kara Dinhoffer, Environmental Affairs Department
Bob Peck, City Parks Manager
FISCAL IMPACT: Unknown at this time
PURPOSE:
~^ The purpose of ttus memorandum is to provide mformat~on to the Board concemmg the lustory of
~~~ recychng efforts m urban parks, mformaaon about how trash is currently collected in urban pazks, and
opportunihes for implementmg test recychng si[es in 2002 Bob Peck of City Pazks and Kaza
Dmhoffer of Environmental Affairs will be at the Boazd meehng to discuss this program.
BACKGROUND:
Recycling Efforts
The City's office of Envuonmental Affairs is the Division chazged with the responsibility of
coordinating recycluig efforts m the City. The City currendy has a program for the recychng of office
papers, alummum cans and bottles and newspapers m publtc buildutgs and office space areas. In 1992,
Environmental Affatrs attempted to pilot a recychng program m a few key pazk azeas, but the
program's successes were mixed. An example of an unsuccessful effort occurred m 1998 at Mapleton
and Stazio Ballfields. At that trme, three recyciing "toters" (flip up top, plastic wheeled, plastrc carts)
were placed at Mapleton and Stazio Ball fields There was no designated, regulaz pick up estabhshed
to empty the recyclables and we found that the contents of these contazners were contaminated and
could not be scavenged for recychng Environmental Affau~s staff beheved that the contazner design
and the lack of regular pick up resulted m the contanunaaon for recychng purposes. These recyclmg
contazners were removed from these sites m 1999
Another fatlure, but subsequent success at Peazl Street Mall is worth noting In 1992, two recycling
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AGENDA ITEM # VII-A. PAGE 1
collec[ion bms were mstalled on the Mall and tn a location on East Pearl, (by 18`" Street) and a locat~on /~-,
on West Pearl, (by 10`" Street). An mdependent ~azutonal contractor was iured to empty the contamers -^
weekly. Approximately 75% of the 6me, the recyclables had to be thrown m the trash, because they
were contammated with trash and non-recyclables. Environmental Affa~rs researched new bin designs,
and in 1998, the Peazl Street bins were replaced and an addidonal cluster of recychng/trash bins was
placed on the Civic Plaza, next to the Tea House. The new bms were designed with more prevalent
signage, and a shape that made it difficult to throw general trash into the bm Smce the bms were
redesigned, [here have been no mstances where these containers have been too contanunated for
recychng collect~on. From a distance the recychng bms do not look lilce trash contamers. They aze
clustered with the regulaz trash contamers so that if a person has trash m one hand, they could sepazate
the trash themselves without leavmg the area. The weekly collect~on costs for recycling from these
clusters of recychng bins costs the city $3,000/yeaz. These costs aze paid for by Environmental Affairs
Pazk and Recreahon mamtenance staff assigned to the Mall contmue to regulazly collect the non-
recyclable trash from the free-standmg trash recegtacles, but do not normally service the recychng
containers To date, rt appears that this method of collecaon is workmg and could be expanded to
other areas.
Current Trash Removal Processes in Urban Park Areas
There are currently 62 urban pazk srtes mamtazned by the Pazks Division Wittun these 62 sites, there
are approximately 300 mdividual, 33-gallon trashcans located at strategic locahons m each park In
addit~on, lazge, achve commumty or neighborhood pazks that generate a lazger volume of trash have
two-yazd dumpsters that aze used to collect trash from these mdividual pazks, as well as serve as a ~
recervmg site for other pazk trash. There aze two-yazd dumpsters located m 11 sepazate pazk or City "~
sites. The Crty Pazks Secuon funds trash removal as a separate lme rtem, with a budget of
approximately $113,000 each yeaz
Full tune and seasonal pazk employees aze responsible for collectmg trash, along wrth the~r other pazk
mazntenance duhes and responsibihhes Several years ago, City Parks decided to consohdate and
centralize tlus function m an effort to become more efficient and to deal wrth the growth m pazkland
and mcreased use of the system City Parks has attempted to lure desigiated seasonal employee(s) to
collect trash seven days per week dunng the peak use times. Although we prefer relymg on seasonal
employees to perform tlus type of work, di~wlties m findmg labor for tlus function has caused us to
use full time, as well as seasonal employees Trash collection currenfly remains a funcuon performed
m con~unchon with ottter mazntenance duhes
Collection and Disposal of Trash
Collecuon and disposal of trash m pazk azeas is different than the collechon of trash m neighborhoods
with curbside service There is no automation in any of the pazk trash collect~on processes. In small,
neighborhood park sites, staff travels from pazk to pazk and collects a trash bag full of trash from each
contamer and places the bag m the back of a pickup truck A new trash lmer is placed m the can and
the process is repeated at the next pazk Dependmg on how full the cans aze, trash may exceed 100
pounds m weight. Once the pickup [ruck bed is full of the trash bags, the muntenance employee ~
AGENDA ITEM ~ VII-A, PAGE 2
~ dnves to the closest large park site and manually removes the bags and tosses them mdividually mto
the two-yazd dumpster. The Department contracts with Western Disposal to collect and dispose the
[rash from the two-yard dumpster. Depending on the panc~ulaz pazk and tristory of use, the dumpster
is collected 3~ tunes per week in the summer, and at least weekly m the wmter. The Department pays
Western Disposal approximately $6,500 per month for the two-yazd dumpster service m the eleven
srtes with the dumpsters In 2001, Western Disposal removed 24,000 cubic yards of trash from city
park and recreation areas.
Dunng the past few yeazs, trash collection systemwide has taken approximately 7 staff hours per day
to make the rounds of all of the city pazk sites. Additionally, over the same nme penod, staff has
noUced an mcreased amount of personal or home generated trash bemg deposited in the two-yazd
dumpsters from neighbors or others, and m some mstances have seen mdividual full trash bags placed
outside of some park trash cans. This could be a result of mcreases m neighborhood curb collechon
fees or increased park usage. Since the two-yazd dumpsters aze not locked, it is not difficult for a
person to unload a trunk load of trash mto these two-yazd dumpsters -
ANALYSIS:
Staff believes there are opportumties for contmued recychng m outdoor urban pazks Envuonmental
Affaus staff expenence has shown that it is crit~cal to purchase specially designed contamers for pubhc
area recychng. The specialty contamers must discourage "contanunat~on" (trash and non-recyclables
m the recychng) and be easdy and mu[mely serviced by the collechon personnel. Past recycluig efforts
r m pazks have not been realized due to [he lack of operat~onal budgetary dollazs for the purchase of
~. special recyclmg collecrion bms and due to past experiences with contanunafion of recychng
contazners Due to other workload demands, both Pazks and Recreat~on, and Environmental Affairs
staffs have also not had the opportumty to properly develop and analyze pilot srtes. With the re-
allocation of the Trash Tax, there is $ 6,750 budgeted m the Environmental Affairs 2002 budget to
purchase recychng bins for parks Environmental Affairs also has lured addihonal staff to monitor
busmess and city recychng effoRS. As mdicated with recychng efforts on the Mall, Envuonmental
Affau~s staff beheves that a successful recychng program needs to include regular collection services
Pazks and Recreation could either urihze exisring pazks maintenance employees to periodically pick
up the recyclables dunng theu normal trash collection method ident~fied previously, or could estabhsh
a sepazate collechon contract with a recychng collection company, a trash collecuon company, or
~anitonal contractor, similar to that performed on Pearl Street Mall. The types of collectron contract
often impact the contamer design guidelines The recychng efforts will need to be analyzed to
deteimme if the mcreased costs of collectron will be offset by a decreased cost of non-recyclables and
to determme workload issues with pazk staff performing recychng efforts
PUBLIC COMNIENT AND PROCESS:
Tlus item is bemg heard at ttus pubhc meering, as advemsed m the Dazly Camera.
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AGENDA ITEM # VII-A. PAGE 3
STAFF RECOMNIENDATION:
Staff proposes to work closely with Environmental Affairs staff to develop a pilot program dunng the
next mne months We propose that three different types of pazk areas should be chosen as test sites
for ttus pilot program We recommend [hat one large commumty pazk site such as Tom Watson Pazk,
a designated sports complex site such as Stazio Ballfields and a small neighborhood pazk srte such as
Martm Pazk (that also houses a reservable picmc shelter) be used as pilot sites ttus yeaz We propose
to explore and analyze the costs and demands on workload of staff collectmg the recyclables versus
usmg pnvate contractors to do ttus work. We also would also analyze the recychng program's effect
on the amount of cubic yards of non-recyclables collected in these pazks. Staff will present their
findmgs to the Board at a meetmg later tlus summer or fall.
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AGENDA ITEM # VII-A PAGE 4