Denton’s apartment dwellers could one day be able to recycle from home thanks to the city’s new recycling and diversion ordinance.
The Denton City Council recently approved changing the ordinance to require all multifamily and commercial properties to implement a diversion and recycling program through the city’s Solid Waste and Recycling Department. The unanimous vote came during the council’s July 18 meeting.
Commercial and multifamily property owners will have the option to recycle divertible materials through the city’s curbside program, through a third-party vendor or by implementing an in-house program.
“Every business, including apartment complexes, hotels, motels, rooming houses, or boarding houses, is included in the commercial diversion article,” Director of Solid Waste Brian Boerner said in an email.
Diversion is defined as diverting materials from the landfill by recycling, reusing or converting waste into energy.
“The impact of the program will be significant. A waste characterization study was completed in 2020 that indicated that between 42% to 55% of all commercial/multi-family trash was comprised of recyclable/divertible materials,” Boerner said. “This equates to approximately 46,000 tons of material generated annually in this sector. Being able to recycle/divert more materials increase the life of the landfill by up to 10 years and save the city and local customers in future costs related to landfill space.”
Each property entity will be required to notify the Solid Waste and Recycling department of its desired plan and report the waste they recycled or diverted.
“If the customer utilizes the City of Denton or a third party to perform their diversion efforts, then the reporting is the responsibility of the vendor, not the customer,” Boerner said. If the customer decides to perform diversion in-house, then the customer would be responsible for the online reporting on a quarterly basis.”
There is no separate fee to participate or comply with the commercial diversion article, but a fee may be required if a customer needs a recycling container from the city.
Boerner said city specialists and auditors are available to identify opportunities to maximize a commercial property’s diversion and reduce their garbage fees.
Boerner said officials anticipate that the program will be cost-neutral to program participants as increases in recycling and diversion will mean less frequent garbage service — which may result in reduced costs for garbage service.
“The customer is in the driver’s seat as to what type of recycling/diversion program will be implemented, how much they want to recycle, and what type of diversion material will fit their particular business,” Boerner said.
During the meeting earlier this month, City Council member Paul Meltzer called the program “a huge step forward in terms of diversion from the landfill.”
“The big obstacle has always been contamination. … The Solid Waste Department took on the challenge of trying to have a breakthrough on how to manage that contamination so that this would be possible,” he said.
According to documents from the meeting, the program will be implemented in five phases, dividing Denton’s 2,803 commercial trash customers into five groups, with one group to be handled each month.
Each group will be sent a letter informing them of the new ordinance and requirements along with a 6-month time frame to submit and implement a diversion plan.
Commercial and multifamily customers using the city recycling program will receive a letter about the new ordinance informing them that no action is needed, unless they choose to change contractors.
The solid waste team will reach out directly to customers who haven’t submitted a diversion plan.
A violation of the ordinance may result in a Class C misdemeanor, according to the ordinance document. Boerner said that they would monitor the ordinance and that it would be rare if a customer violated it.
“We, of course, need to enforce violations that endanger the safety of our drivers and our community members,” Boerner said. “We will be monitoring the program and intend to assist any customer that has issues identifying opportunities for recycling.”
Boerner said the Denton City Council adopted the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Strategy in July 2022 as part of its implementation strategy and recommended implementing an ordinance requiring recycling within the commercial and multifamily sectors.
He said the specific process to develop the commercial diversion program was started in November, with a work session to introduce the idea to the council and receive feedback on proceeding with a rewrite of Chapter 24 Solid Waste Ordinance with the inclusion of the commercial diversion provisions.