Aspen
businesses that haul cardboard to the recycling center may continue to do
so under a revised recycling ordinance that is back before the City
Council today.
The exemption acknowledges the potential cost to
businesses that previously faced the prospect of paying for the pickup of
cardboard and other recyclable materials as part of their garbage service.
The pickup of most recyclables will still be folded into the base
rate for trash service under the new ordinance, but businesses can opt out
when it comes to cardboard under the revised ordinance.
Businesses
that produce a lot of cardboard were likely facing a substantial fee to
have it picked up and taken away multiple times each week. Instead, they
can haul it to the city’s recycling center themselves and deposit it for
free.
“This ordinance is not [meant] to put a burden on those who
are recycling already,” said Jannette Murison, senior environmental health
specialist.
The cardboard exemption is a “step in the right
direction,” said Bill Dinsmoor, owner of the Main Street Bakery and Cafe,
and chairman of the Commercial Core and Lodging Commission. He has been a
vocal critic of aspects of the recycling initiative, though he stressed
that he supports recycling.
His restaurant’s employees haul
cardboard and plastics — the two biggies the cafe generates — to the
recycling center, he said.
Dinsmoor used to pay to have the
materials picked up, but it cost more than $2,000 a year, and prices have
probably risen since then, Dinsmoor said.
“I said, ‘Gosh, for that
price, I can haul it myself.’”
Sandy’s Office Supply, which
recycles plenty of cardboard on its own, may have been looking at up to
$3,000 a year to have it picked up six days a week. It, too, is lauding
the exemption as a sensitive move, said Justin Barrow, general
manager.
“To increase costs like that doesn’t seem reasonable when
we’re already taking care of that ourselves,” he said. “Personally, I’m
not sure it should be limited to cardboard, but that helps me
out.”
As another new component of the ordinance, the Environmental
Health Department will issue an annual report detailing how much Aspen
recycles and assessing other impacts of the recycling initiative, such as
increased traffic in the alleyways.
Currently, Aspenites recycle an
average of about 150 pounds of materials per person, per year, compared to
the 1997 national average of 453 pounds per person, per year, according to
Murison’s latest memo to the council.
The city’s new initiative is
aimed at boosting recycling. The ordinance, if the council approves it,
goes into effect in late November, but won’t actually affect businesses
and residents until their existing contracts for garbage pickup
expire.
Source: www.aspentimes.com
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