With Loveland’s new closed-lid policy for trash carts days from going into effect, some residents have gotten early warnings in the form of removable hangers left on the handles of overstuffed carts.
Loveland’s City Council voted in February to amend part of the municipal code that allowed customers to pack trash in carts as long as the lid was open no more than 45 degrees, instead requiring lids to be fully closed.
While the change was officially codified six months ago, following the outbreak of COVID-19, the Solid Waste Division decided to hold off on enforcing it.
“We understand that people have had a lot on their minds over the past few months,” solid waste superintendent Tyler Bandemer said in a press release. “We wanted to provide our customers some time to get a better feel for their current collection needs and increase their cart size as needed.”
Now, the city says trucks plan to finally stop taking overfilled carts on Aug. 31.
For Nate Rasmussen and the trash truck drivers he supervises, the change has been a long time coming.
“We’ve already pushed it off for half a year now, and we wanted to wait just because of the coronavirus,” he said.
Rasmussen said he’s worked for Loveland’s Solid Waste Division for about 25 years — on a trash truck for the first 10 and as a supervisor for the last 15. During that time, he said he’s seen the amount of garbage collected grow from about 80 compacted cubic yards per day to nearly three times that amount.
In addition to cutting down on incidents of overstuffed trash carts spilling and foraging animals ripping open exposed trash bags, Rasmussen said the division hopes the change will divert more waste to recycling facilities and away from the Larimer County Landfill.
“Trash guys have their fingers on the pulse of how fast the city is growing,” he said. “We’ve made a mountain out there. A mountain of trash.”
Loveland is a state leader in recycling and was recognized for having the highest rate of residential recycling among Colorado communities in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Rasmussen noted that all of a customers’ recycling is accepted for a flat fee. Customers who need to throw away more trash than will fit in their cart can also pay for a larger trash cart or buy trash stamps to stick on individual bags.
Still, Rasmussen anticipates there will be pushback. Driving around a neighborhood south of the city’s Public Administration Building, he pointed out carts that would be considered in violation of the new rules — one or two on every other street.
When asked how they enforced the old 45-degree rule, he said the determination was usually a judgment call made by drivers.
“We’ve given customers the benefit of a lot of that gray area, but once you start with that, where do you stop?,” he asked. “There are people who regularly are not in compliance. We see a lot of that.”
Aiding them in enforcement are the multiple cameras mounted on the trucks that will allow drivers to snap a photo when they decide to leave a cart behind.
The cameras are used currently to photograph the outsides of homes when drivers have to skip a home that did not leave their carts at the curb.
A camera in the “hopper” of the trucks also allows drivers to look at the contents of recycling carts as they are emptied out.
Rasmussen said the division ordered thousands of warning hangers and handed them out to drivers to attach to the handles of carts that were packed too full to be accepted under the new rules.
Although the city put the hangers on the handles of carts after emptying them out, some of the customers who received the warnings later said they felt the policy change was too extreme.
Sydney Edwards said she and her neighbors in her Loveland triplex received hangers indicating their carts had been overfilled and weren’t placed the required 3 feet from one another.
“I think it honestly is a little outrageous,” she said. “I’m just a single person, but one of my neighbors has four kids, and the other has a child as well, so I think it’ll definitely have an impact on them.”
Another Loveland resident, Wendy Hill, said she received a warning last week about an overfilled cart. She questioned the impact it would have on residents who find themselves putting out more trash during the holidays.
“It really worries me come Christmastime, because there’s a lot of trash and recycling generated during that time,” she said. “I think it’s a severe overreaction as long as the person is responsible and doesn’t have their trash blowing everywhere.”
Rasmussen said that, while he understood why people try to fit as much trash as they can in their carts, the change would allow the city to charge customers in proportion to what they actually throw away.
“I get it; everyone’s trying to save a buck,” he said. “But it’s not like we’re dropping an iron fist.”
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Loveland trash trucks ready to leave behind overfilled carts, starting Monday - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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