Dump fees set to increase in 2026

Success or failure as a local politician is rarely about big flashy issues.

More often it is about the little things that can make the lives of one’s constituents difficult if not handled correctly. Like, say, trash.

In their last meeting of 2025, the Boulder City Council spent more than an hour discussing what might have looked to be a nothing kind of agenda item. In this case, it was about proposed updates to the franchise agreement between the city and the company that runs the city’s dump and collects trash and recycling for both residential and commercial accounts.

The franchise agreement is basically the contract between Boulder City Disposal and the city for a variety of trash-related services. The original deal was struck more than 20 years ago and has been amended several times in the ensuing years, most recently in 2018. At hand are the kinds of issues that voters tend to care about a lot including number of days per year when trash will not get picked up and how much service is going to cost.

This was all preliminary and no decisions were made. City staff will come back in January with concrete recommendations, which the council will be able to accept or alter after discussion. Then a bill or resolution will be written and introduced. At the same time, a business impact survey will go out. Since the proposed changes will affect costs to businesses, this is a requirement under state law. Staff said they think they can get things done so the council will be able to vote in late February.

The big issues are all money issues and, yes, costs are going to go up. The current agreement ties annual rate increases to the Consumer Price Index but cap increases at no more than 4% annually. That cap is set to go away.

Not only that but, as inflation has bedeviled every part of the economy since 2021 there have been three years when the CPI rate of inflation was higher than 4%. In addition to removing the cap, staff is advising that BCD be allowed a one-time larger annual increase to cover their losses. Based on those losses in 2021 and 2022, the annual increase in July could be as high as 10%.

Businesses are set to see a larger increase for recycling service. Historically, BCD has not charged businesses for recycling pickup. Under the new proposal, the cost would be between $63 and $209 per week depending on the amount of material. This is in addition to a $27 per month fee for the recycling cart.

On the same, “the city hasn’t been paying for this” tip, since 2012, BCD has not charged the city for emptying the trash cans at city parks. They are proposing a charge of $8,520 per month or $102,000 per year for that service moving forward. Staff pointed out that hiring people to do the same job would run the city closer to $192,000 per year, which they characterized as a savings. Regardless, it is going to mean six figures in future city budgets.

The days of service thing is pretty simple. Right now, BCD employees get only July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day as paid holidays. The company would like to expand that list to include Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Labor Day. Trash scheduled for pickup on those days would get handled on the next business day unless that falls on a Saturday or Sunday.