Skagway committee narrows draft restaurant-compost ordinance, bars 'biodegradable'-labeled items from compost stream

The Solid Waste Advisory Committee of Skagway Municipality refined a draft ordinance May 6 that would add restaurant compost collection and approved outreach materials to educate businesses.

Members discussed enforcement and reporting and agreed to keep some permissive language in the ordinance so restaurants would not be micromanaged. During debate, members raised confusion between products labeled "biodegradable" and those that are genuinely compostable under local composting conditions. To reduce confusion at the point of acceptance, the committee agreed to add a clarifying subsection to the draft ordinance. The Chair read the approved addition aloud: "products labeled, quote, biodegradable cannot be included in the compost stream." That addition was moved, seconded and approved by the committee.

The committee also reviewed an outreach poster Nicole Roskamp prepared for restaurants and removed a claim promising "free large indoor compost bins" (the committee noted the city currently stocks small 1-gallon buckets and did not want to promise large indoor bins). Members agreed to distribute revised posters to restaurants found not composting yet and to keep copies on the compost truck for outreach. The Chair will forward the edited poster to the city manager (Emily) to confirm distribution.

Why it matters: The ordinance change and outreach are intended to improve the quality of material entering the municipal compost stream and reduce contamination by noncompostable products.

Action and next steps: The committee added the biodegradable exclusion to the draft ordinance and approved the poster with the identified edits. The revised ordinance language and poster will be forwarded to the city manager for next administrative steps; final ordinance enactment remains subject to the city's adoption process and was not specified in the meeting.