City survey seeks feedback on C&D debris
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
As Aspen continues to consider an ordinance mandating the recycling of construction and demolition (C&D) debris, an ongoing effort to solicit feedback via a survey from those in the industry remains open.
Pitkin County requires permitted projects to separate and recycle construction and demolition materials, and Aspen is interested in adopting similar regulations into city code.
Waste Diversion and Recycling Administrator Ainsley Brosnan-Smith said those in the industry are defined as architects, to the project managers, to the laborers, to the electricians — anyone involved in building development in the community.
“We want to hear from the people that are on the ground doing the work and also the project managers and the construction managers that are organizing teams and applying for permits,” she said.
Brosnan-Smith said she’ll continue reviewing data collected from the survey until Thursday, April 25, in preparation for the next City Council work session on May 13; however, the survey will remain active and people are still highly encouraged to participate to better provide staff with updated information.
The survey addresses questions such as concern over seeing 40% of waste buried consisting of C&D debris, how much of a construction site’s C&D recyclable debris should the city divert from the trash, as well as input on potential incentives to make compliance with a program easier.
“We want to know what the hurdles are that get in the way of being able to separate those materials and recycle them and how can the city make that easier or make that something achievable for projects to do,” she said. “We’re also interested in learning about people’s preferences on how much we should require each building project to divert. We also want to hone in on what size project people feel that diversion could happen at.”
The diversion requirements of Pitkin County are that a minimum of 35% of total project-related waste by weight shall be diverted from trash and that 100% of the materials listed as recoverable materials shall be diverted from trash.
The Pitkin County Solid Waste Center reported the following statistics for projects following their diversion regulations in 2023:
- 28 diversion projects were finalized.
- 25 projects met the 35% diversion regulation and received a 100% refund.
- 2 projects accomplished less than a 35% diversion and received a 50% refund.
- 1 project did not accomplish any diversion and received no refund.
- In total, projects diverted an average of 66% of C&D debris, meaning they diverted beyond the 35% requirements.
Brosnan-Smith said she receives calls from contractors on a weekly basis inquiring about the city’s C&D diversion code, when in reality what they’re referring to is the county’s code.
“Pitkin County has led the way for construction and demolition waste, recycling, and salvaging, so it only makes sense that the city would pursue something similar since we do have a lot of demolition projects occurring all the time,” she said. “These contractors are aware that the code exists, so we just want to make whatever we pursue for an ordinance or code familiar for the contractors to make it the easiest and familiar process it can be given that we’re modeling our potential ordinance off of what Pitkin County has in place.”
The city’s survey is being circulated via a QR code, which can be accessed in both English and in Spanish.
English: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc5NJfFPelx7_st9CORG_cUwsPAJjMiHqePJIYagRibk2nQqQ/viewform?usp=sf_link. Spanish: forms.gle/DbTqJyWPJFviSpH28
To reach Jonson Kuhn, email him at jkuhn@aspentimes.com.
