{"id":2445436,"date":"2019-06-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=308097"},"modified":"2019-06-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T06:00:00","slug":"aspens-electeds-choose-to-continue-single-stream-recycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspens-electeds-choose-to-continue-single-stream-recycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen\u2019s electeds choose to continue single-stream recycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aspen City Council<\/a> agreed Monday to have the city pay as much as $500,000 to continue the single-stream recycling program for a year at the Rio Grande Recycling Center.<\/p>\n

Council agreed that the city should phase in targeted recyclable collection by August 2020.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, council will have a larger discussion about the future of the city\u2019s recycling program and how it can grow to include compost and other materials.<\/p>\n

Targeted recyclable collection is expected to cost between $75,000 and $200,000 annually.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s move comes after Pitkin County informed the municipal government that it is pulling its funding<\/a> in August for a hauler to pick up recyclables at Rio Grande Center. That\u2019s because the county moved to mandatory curbside recycling earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Liz Chapman, the city\u2019s environmental health specialist, told council that a 2015 study showed that glass, cardboard and co-mingles are recycled the most in the city.<\/p>\n

Many apartment buildings, condominiums and businesses in Aspen don\u2019t have enough storage to store materials like massive amounts of cardboard, Chapman said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a predominant reason why people use the recycling center, she noted.<\/p>\n

With the current recycling efforts at Rio Grande<\/a>, it saves roughly 19 days of life annually in the local landfill, which is filling up quickly and has about 15 years of life left.<\/p>\n

A survey conducted between March and May that involved almost 550 responses showed 90<\/a>% of those asked want the recycling center to continue operating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be incredibly short-sighted of us to discontinue recycling,\u201d Councilman Ward Hauenstein said.<\/p>\n

Phasing out single-stream recycling in favor for targeted materials gives the community a year to adjust and gives the city time to set goals for the recycling program, council members agreed.<\/p>\n

Mayor Torre said the city needs to increase its capture of recyclable materials in general, noting that 40% of a person\u2019s trash is compostable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWaste management is vital in our community and we have to get a greater grip on it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The city in 2015 mandated haulers to include curbside recycling but only about 30% of residents use the service.<\/p>\n

Council members said that number needs to rise and people need to be reminded they have that service available to them.<\/p>\n

Torre said he wants to the city making it easier for people to recycle.<\/p>\n

Chapman said she and her department will solicit proposals from vendors to collect, sort and send recyclables to market from the Rio Grande Center for the next year.<\/p>\n

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

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

Aspen City Council agreed Monday to have the city pay as much as $500,000 to continue the single-stream recycling program for a year at the Rio Grande Recycling Center. Council agreed that the city should phase in targeted recyclable collection by August 2020. In the meantime, council will have a larger discussion about the future […]<\/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-2445436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 21:42:27","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\/2445436","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=2445436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}