{"id":2442942,"date":"2019-04-14T21:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T03:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=304118"},"modified":"2019-04-15T08:20:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T14:20:24","slug":"aspen-sorting-out-the-future-of-its-recycling-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-sorting-out-the-future-of-its-recycling-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen sorting out the future of its recycling center"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pitkin County officials are considering going to mandatory curbside pickup for recyclables and doing away with funding for the Rio Grande Recycling Center in Aspen.<\/strong>
Aubree Dallas\/Aspen Times file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Aspen officials ponder how to keep the popular Rio Grande Recycling Center open for as much as $350,000 a year, they are taking suggestions from the public on how to do it.<\/p>\n

More than 200 individuals have weighed in both online and in person with city officials at the recycling center and other locales around town, said Liz O\u2019Connell Chapman, the city senior environmental health specialist.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we go around spending money, we want to ask taxpayers what they think,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The city must figure out how to fund the recycling center sometime this year; Pitkin County<\/a> has been paying the bulk of operation but will no longer come August.<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the county is now requiring all residents within its jurisdiction to pay for curb-side recycling.<\/p>\n

The city has required haulers to have curb-side recycling services since 2005, but for unknown reasons it hasn\u2019t been used as much as officials thought it would.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not have the participation rate we had hoped for,\u201d O\u2019Connell Chapman said, adding education and outreach is necessary to increase usage. \u201cThere is a huge missed opportunity in the curbside recycling realm in Aspen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, it cost the county $250,000 to have Waste Management haul recyclables from the Rio Grande center.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell Chapman said after speaking with the two haulers that the city could contract with in the future for the same service, it became clear that cost could go as high as $350,000 annually.<\/p>\n

A less expensive option that is popular with many users who have taken the city\u2019s survey on http:\/\/www.aspencommunity<\/a> voice.com is going to target recycling in which specific recyclables are collected separately.<\/p>\n

Currently, the Rio Grande center operates as a single-stream collector where plastic, paper, metal and other materials are combined.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the most expensive option, O\u2019Connell Chapman noted.<\/p>\n

Between 150 and 200 people use the center every day, and over a four-year stretch, just over 4,000 tons of material have been diverted from the local landfill.<\/p>\n

The city has a 29 percent diversion rate, 2 percent of which is composting. The state of Colorado has an 11 percent diversion rate for recyclables going into the landfills.<\/p>\n

The city is in the middle of its public outreach campaign to get feedback, which will shape officials\u2019 recommendations to Aspen City Council on how to move forward.<\/p>\n

The city is asking people to take the survey online, which asks 10 questions about their opinions on recycling and requests additional comments.<\/p>\n

Also on the website is a community forum for people to make comments in a public setting. Although only eight people have weighed in, they are in favor of the recycling center staying.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecycling and composting needs the subsidy, support and leadership from the city and county to be effective and viable,\u201d wrote one user. \u201cThe recycling center is used by hundreds upon hundreds of people and cannot be replaced with mandatory at-home pick up. With recycling and composting, every citizen can participate, our community leaders can help lead and support the effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another supporter wrote that it is money well spent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pay plenty of property and sales taxes to the city of Aspen; $150K to 300K per year is a very small percentage of the overall budget,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAspen is supposed to be a leader in environmental sustainability. Closing or relocating the RGRC is not demonstrating leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell Chapman said the city will take comments until the end of the month and the best way to do that is on http:\/\/www.aspencommunityvoice.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are several documents and other informational items available there for people to look at to help them craft an informed opinion.<\/p>\n

City staff also will be on site at the recycling center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today to answer questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will present that information to council this summer,\u201d O\u2019Connell Chapman said, adding the environmental health team will wait until a new City Council is seated in June. \u201cThis is such a big issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pitkin County officials are considering going to mandatory curbside pickup for recyclables and doing away with funding for the Rio Grande Recycling Center in Aspen.Aubree Dallas\/Aspen Times file photo As Aspen officials ponder how to keep the popular Rio Grande Recycling Center open for as much as $350,000 a year, they are taking suggestions from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2442942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 17:13:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}