In October 2022, Boulder City Council approved funding for a pilot program to prevent trash and unwanted items from migrating from University Hill and other nearby areas into encampments along the Boulder Creek corridor. In response, city staff launched a pilot project to enhance trash collection in the student-dense neighborhoods of University Hill and Goss-Grove during spring and fall University of Colorado (CU) move-in/out 2023.
During this initial pilot, the city provided 15 large capacity dumpsters throughout the two neighborhoods. Although the dumpsters experienced heavy use, there was not a meaningful decrease in the amount of trash and debris removed from encampments during the same timeframe. Additionally, city and CU staff were pulled away from their core duties to manage misuse of the dumpsters. Therefore, the pilot program did not work as intended to substantially reduce trash in encampments.
This pilot did, however, reinvigorate conversations between the city and CU about how to address unwanted home goods during student move in/move out. The city and CU are continuing these conversations and hope to identify ways to develop a circular economy related to unwanted reusable items.