Staff recommends the City Council hold a public hearing and approve first reading of the ordinance amending Billings, Montana City Code (BMCC), Article 21-200, Solid Waste Collection and Disposal.

BMCC, Article 21-200 establishes general and cost methodology for Solid Waste Collection and Disposal. The primary purpose of the ordinance amendment is to revise the service for "extras" collection to cardboard only as approved unanimously by Council at the June 26, 2023 business meeting.  The parameters of additional collection services as an on-call, per fee basis and acceptable cardboard guidelines are also described. Additionally, amendments are proposed to delete obsolete language in BMCC, Article 21-200, as well as minor amendments to the verbiage. Other proposed amendments are:

• Remove the $500 permit fee for infectious wastes from city code and instead include the fee in the annual solid rate resolution;
• Specify that a residential collection customer can have up to two residential black containers and up to two yard waste containers:
• Allow for residential customers to have either a 64 gallon or 96 gallon containers and designate that a customer with a 64 gallon container cannot have a second black container;
• Require that all trash placed in black residential containers be bagged and tied;
• Specify that lids on residential containers should be able to close and overfilled containers will not be emptied;
• Define the allowable time period that residential containers can be set out in the city right-of-way as the night before and day of solid waste collection;
• Add verbiage regarding illegal dumping of solid waste;
• Revise the unsecured load language to include the uncovered load fee;
• Add parameters for disposal of contaminate material and asbestos; and
• Include information regarding delinquent bill procedures.

City Council may:

• Approve the amendment to BMCC, Article 21-200 Solid Waste Collection and Disposal; or,
• Not approve the amendment. 

There are no significant fiscal effects as a result of this amendment to city code.