Council adopts refuse-provider reporting requirement; city to protect address data

The Greeley City Council adopted an amendment to Chapter 8 of the Greeley Municipal Code Tuesday requiring refuse-service providers to report tonnage and related waste-characterization data to the city. Councilors said the change aims to give city staff better data for waste-diversion and recycling decisions and to improve the municipality’s eligibility for state grants.

Why it matters: Better data on waste types and volumes is a core requirement of Colorado’s recent waste and producer-responsibility initiatives; the city argued measured reporting is required to plan diversion programs and to apply for grant funds.

What the ordinance requires: Will Jones, who presented the proposal, said staff revised the draft after outreach with haulers and that the requirement will ask providers to report weights by category and other non-personally-identifying routing data. Jones said the ordinance will not require haulers to separate customers' waste at pickup but will require reporting the weight of material in the categories that haulers already track in their routing and billing systems. To address privacy concerns, staff worked with the city attorney’s office and said address-level data would be treated like utility address information and would not be publicly released.

Questions and public comment: Councilors asked staff how many haulers were consulted; Jones said three major haulers (Mountain High, Republic and Waste Management) were primary contacts and that smaller carriers had not raised concerns in the outreach. Councilor Debuti asked about operationalizing the reporting requirement; staff responded they would work with haulers to accept a city-provided form (for example, an Excel import) and to minimize burden.

At the podium, Louisa Anderson thanked council for prioritizing sustainable waste management and urged clarity on definitions of recyclables and inclusion of smaller haulers in outreach. Jones said staff plan continued coordination with providers and will develop reporting templates.

Council action: Councilor Payton moved to adopt the ordinance and to publish it by title only; the measure passed on a 6-0 roll call vote (Butler, Debuti, Hall, Peyton, Olson and Mayor Gates). Staff said the next steps are to finalize data templates, implement an annual reporting cycle and pursue state grant opportunities made possible by improved data.

Implementation notes: Staff told council the reporting requirement will rely on haulers’ existing routing and billing software and that it is modeled on reporting programs used in other Colorado communities; city staff will work with haulers on a practical import format.