Littleton proposal would require trash haulers to offer recycling
The draft ordinance would also tie trash prices to service volume and limit separate recycling charges when haulers qualify for state reimbursement.
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Littleton’s City Council is scheduled to consider an ordinance Oct. 20 that would require haulers serving homes and multifamily properties to offer curbside recycling at least every other week and base trash prices on the amount of service customers choose.
The Oct. 20 agenda schedules a first reading of Ordinance 19-2026. Staff recommended approval and proposed a second reading and public hearing on Nov. 3, according to the meeting packet and draft ordinance.
The draft defines residential service as serving properties with four or fewer dwelling units and multifamily service as serving properties with five or more. Haulers that regularly collect trash at those properties would have to offer curbside recycling, including at least the materials on the city’s minimum recyclables list.
The proposal would require haulers to pursue an agreement with the state’s Producer Responsibility Organization when it offers reimbursement for the hauler’s customer class and service area. A hauler with an active agreement could not separately charge customers for recycling covered by the agreement or charge customers and seek reimbursement for the same service.
Without such an agreement, a hauler could charge a reasonable recycling fee, capped at its per-gallon rate for trash collection. It would have to explain the separate charge in writing and end it by the first full billing cycle after an agreement covers that customer group and area.
The draft sets no fixed dollar amount for recycling charges or for a flat monthly operating fee. Instead, it caps the recycling charge relative to each hauler’s trash rate and limits the flat fee to the monthly price of one standard trash container collected weekly. Residential customers would have to be offered different container sizes, with larger containers costing more and no lower per-gallon rate for larger containers. Multifamily customers would be charged based on the volume of containers they subscribe to. The City Council would set license fees separately by resolution.
If adopted, the ordinance would take effect for enforcement Jan. 1, 2027. Existing haulers would have until July 1, 2027, to offer the required recycling service and would need to notify current customers at least 30 days beforehand. The city director could extend that deadline by up to 180 days, renewable once for good cause, for qualifying delays outside a hauler’s reasonable control.
New customer accounts would be subject to the proposed volume-pricing rules beginning Jan. 1, 2027. Certain existing contracts would transition when they expire or renew, or when rates change outside an existing escalation provision.