Deciding to leave your garbage can out on the curb until it stops raining or waiting for one of the children to retrieve the recycling bin because it's on their chore list may get you into hot water under a new county ordinance.

Keep doing it, and you'll have some explaining to do — in Justice Court.

The Salt Lake County Council will consider a new proposal Tuesday that would create a "three strikes" system for failure to get your county garbage/recycling containers off the street in a "timely" fashion. Sanitation Services director Pam Roberts said Monday that the issue stems mostly from neighborhoods where narrow streets create issues, including the hazardous combination of cars, bikes, garbage cans and limited space.

"The biggest challenge has been Emigration Canyon," Roberts said. "The number of bicyclists who frequent the canyon along with car traffic … the collection containers and the extremely narrow roadways … has been a dangerous issue we've tried to address for years."

Roberts noted that some neighborhoods have taken to establishing their own de facto container zones where multiple households leave their cans lined up — creating an unfortunate, and smelly, situation for those who live near the zone. Plus, it's illegal.

The new ordinance does not change the existing statute addressing prompt removal of containers — that's been on the books for years and requires cans be rolled off the streets on the same day they're emptied. What it does do is create an enforcement structure to make sure county sanitation customers toe the line. Councilwoman Jani Iwamoto, the proposal's sponsor, said the new rules are meant to address old issues, and do it in a way that encourages compliance rather than seeking to punish wrongdoers.

"The ordinance is complaint-driven and meant to solve some of the problems we're having with cans being left out," Iwamoto said. "The sanitation department is not looking to go after people."

According to a memorandum from the Salt Lake County Council's legal counsel, Karl Hendrickson, a first complaint would result in a written warning to the offender with an explanation of the ordinance; a second complaint, another written warning along with a phone call explaining the rules; a third complaint results in the matter being turned over to the Salt Lake County sheriff, who would likely issue a citation through the mail that would then be adjudicated by a Justice Court.

This last step is one Iwamoto said she hopes can be avoided by continuing to work with sanitation on resolving issues.

"Sanitation is working on setting up community collection in some of these neighborhoods right now to get containers off the streets," Iwamoto said. "There's already one near the site of the new fire station, and more are planned."

Roberts said six new collection dumpsters for household waste and co-mingled recycling will serve about 90 homes in Emigration Canyon neighborhoods where the problems are most severe.

The Salt Lake County Council will consider the matter today at itsweekly meeting.

E-MAIL: araymond@desnews.com