Boise apartment-dwellers want to recycle. So why do many complexes lack services?

Every two weeks, Richard Rachman donned a 40-liter backpack full of jars and cans, hopped on his bike and headed from his Southeast Boise apartment to a nearby recycling bin.

Rachman, a Ph.D. student at Boise State University, was committed to recycling his glass and metal waste even though his apartment complex doesn’t offer the service. But saving his items for the biweekly dropoff created another problem: cockroaches.

Now Rachman saves only glass jars, which he brings to Roots Zero Waste Market in Garden City once a month. He said his situation is typical for people living in multifamily residences, which the city of Boise does not require to offer recycling services.

Boise renters told the Idaho Statesman that they don’t have much say in their access to recycling. The lack of it leads to more recyclable items in the trash and requires them to find their own solutions if they want to recycle.

City officials say they’re offering incentives and working with property managers to improve recycling accessibility in apartment complexes and other multifamily residences. But Rachman and other renters are calling on the city and landlords to provide what they say is a necessity.

Boise apartment-dwellers seek recycling solutions

Amid a boom in development, Boise updated its solid-waste ordinance in 2022 to increase the square footage requirement for dumpster areas at new multifamily residences. City public works spokesperson Melissa Stoner said in an email that the requirement makes it easier to add a recycling bin if residents or property managers want one.

“The previous minimum standards required space only for a single dumpster, which would be trash,” Stoner said. “This made it difficult for apartment managers or owners to request a recycling container, because sometimes they didn’t have adequate space for the container.”

But the ordinance doesn’t require property owners or managers to provide recycling services, and according to renters, many don’t.

The Statesman heard from a dozen Boise residents who said their multifamily residences do not provide recycling. The city doesn’t have clear numbers on how many apartment complexes offer recycling, as multifamily residences are part of the “commercial” category that also includes businesses.

Stoner said 80% of commercial customers recycle, compared with 97% of residential customers. Because trucks collect from businesses and multifamily residences on the same routes, there’s also no way to know how much recycling comes from apartments, she said.

Some renters told the Statesman they’ve resigned themselves to throwing recyclables away in the trash. Others, like Rachman, have found their own solutions.

Jennifer Brown said she takes her recyclables with her to her workplace, which offers recycling. Ashton Undesser said he takes his to a local recycling center, but that has its drawbacks.

“It’s nearby so it’s not the worst thing ever, but it does decrease the overall amount of recycling that I do,” he said.

Stoner noted that Boise residents can drop off recycling for free at the Republic Services Recycling Center on Cole Road near Costco.

Lack of recycling prompts frustration

The city suggests that tenants who want recycling services contact their landlords or property managers. Stoner said the city plans to include a tenant-request template letter on its website to make such requests easier. Renters aren’t sure it will make a difference.

Rachman said he has lived at his Boise studio apartment for two years, during which there have been three property management companies. Rachman said he has raised the issue of recycling with all three without success.

“This isn’t going to happen by asking them,” he said. “To ask for power from the powerful is impossible.”

Renters said it’s a point of frustration, guilt and worry.

“Every time I find myself on the way to the dumpster with a garbage sack of mostly plastic, I’m struck by a sensation of guilty awareness that there are systems in place to redirect this waste toward a greater good,” said Sydney Cayo, who rents an apartment in the North End.

Rachman said he’s skeptical of recycling — he recycles glass and metal but avoids plastic because of concerns about plastic recycling’s efficacy — but thinks it can alleviate some “climate anxiety” by giving people agency over their impact on the environment.

“When I recycle I can feel like I’m lifting off the boulder on my shoulders for a little reprieve,” Rachman said.

He said the state of apartment recycling creates “haves” and “have-nots” — people who can participate in recycling and those who can’t, which is often tied to income or ability.

“When the haves and have-nots face the same issues (with recycling), this will be addressed,” he said.

Cayo said she also has noticed how apartment recycling disproportionately affects people who are low-income or who have disabilities.

“Many (of my neighbors) are elderly with limited mobility, or refugees, overwhelmed by the intake of new information in every aspect of life,” Cayo said. “While it’s within reason for me to transport my own recycling to the facility, it’s not the reality for the majority of tenants in my complex.”

Cayo said her apartment’s two dumpsters are often filled to the point of overflowing by collection day. She wonders if a recycling bin might reduce how much trash overflows from the regular bins.

Boise offers recycling incentives. Are they enough?

Stoner said Boise is offering numerous incentives to bring apartments on board. She said the first 95-gallon cart a commercial property owner requests is free. Residential customers pay about $30 per month for a trash cart and recycling cart of the same size.

Additional commercial recycling carts or bins cost more, and rates vary based on the size of the container and how frequently it’s collected. Weekly collection for a dumpster that holds 8 cubic yards would cost about $100 a month, for example.

Stoner said recycling service costs less than trash — about one-third cheaper for the same size container — for commercial customers as a further incentive to participate. She said developers have been “amicable” about the increased minimum for trash containers, since many of them know that renters are often looking for convenient recycling access.

“We know that many multifamily properties lack recycling service, and we want to change that,” Stoner said.

Still, the city has no plans to implement a requirement for multifamily residences to offer recycling, she added.

Rachman said incentives just aren’t enough to make a difference. He pointed to cities like Los Angeles and Seattle, where multifamily residences with a certain number of units are required to provide recycling and sometimes compost services. The current management company for Rachman’s apartment is based in Seattle.

“Without that law, management companies have no incentive to do this,” he said. “Point-blank, (apartments) have to provide recycling.”

Property manager calls recycling ‘right thing to do’

Katie Vila, chief operations officer for Boise-based real estate developer and property manager Roundhouse, told the Statesman her company prioritizes recycling in its new developments and tries to implement it at older properties as space allows.

“If you can find a way to do it, I think it’s the right thing to do, and I think tenants also appreciate it,” Vila said.

She noted that recycling is an amenity that can make properties more attractive to tenants and improve tenant retention.

Roundhouse manages 3,200 rental units across Idaho, including the Lucy, Fowler and CW Moore apartment complexes in downtown Boise.

Vila said there are some obstacles with recycling.

“It would be great if you could have a chute for recycling, but cardboard boxes get stuck in chutes,” Vila said. Renters at Roundhouse’s apartments typically must take their recycling to a dumpster on-site.

Vila said it can also be a challenge to get tenants to break down boxes for recycling and ensure they’re not contaminating recycling bins with trash.

She said property managers who don’t have space for recycling are in a tough spot. Those who do have the ability to offer the service should be proactive about adding recycling, Vila said.

“One of our values is being future-focused,” she said, “and we find that tenants generally appreciate the fact that we’re thinking about things like being green.”