Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutcclc.ag.08162006 -COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING SISTER CITIES MEETING ROOM CITY HALL August 16, 2006 8:30 a.m. 8:30 I. Roll call II. Approval of minutes - August 2, 2006 III. Vending Agreement - market IV. Catalyst on-going discussion VI. Adjourn Catalyst Rio Grand Park - memorial chairs and tables Signage at Rio Grand Park for bathroom located at the parking garage. Council work session Exclusion of the dwell review - fire pit Page 1 of 1 Kathy Strickland From: Sarah Laverty Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 1 :42 PM To: Kathy Strickland Cc: Sarah Laverty Subject: CCLC Attachments: MEMO WS re Status of Recycling Ordinance.doc Hi Kathy. Last time CCLC met they expressed interest in the status of the Recycling Ordinance. I've attached a Memo I presented to Council updating on the first few months - can you please pass this on to CCLC. This report is very preliminary and was done before many businesses phased in under the ordinance. A more recent report will be done this fall, but for now, this should provide some information for CCLC. I am also working with all the haulers to establish how many more times per week a trash or recycling truck now comes through Aspen as a result of the ordinance. As soon as I connect with the haulers to get this information, I will pass it on to CCLC. Thanks, and if anyone has questions, please have them contact me. Sarah Laverty Environmental Project Coordinator City of Aspen - Environmental Health Dept 130 S. Galena St City Hall - 2nd Floor sarahl@ci.aspen.co.us www.aspenpitkin.com/depts/44/ (970) 429-1798 8/15/2006 MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor and Council FROM: Sarah Laverty, Environmental Project Coordinator CC: Lee Cassin, Environmental Health Director DATE OF MEMO: May 4,2006 MEETING DATE: May 9,2006 RE: Update on Status of Recycling Ordinance Current Status Implementation of the Recycling Ordinance so far has been very successful in the opinion of Environmental Health Staff, and staffs extensive outreach efforts last fall and this spring have resulted in very good citizen awareness of the recycling ordinance. At this point residential accounts are operating under the provisions of the ordinance and a number of commercial and multi family accounts have also been phased in. After experiencing an influx of calls at the end of2005 and in early 2006, calls regarding the ordinance have tapered off and issues have been resolved. The recent surge in calls have been related to yard waste, and staff has responded by promoting existing options, creating a list of companies that will offer curbside yard waste pick up, and proposing an in town yard waste drop off site. At this point staff is not able to quantify the increase in recycling due to the recycling ordinance. The ordinance is phased, so the full effects will not be realized for another year or more. However, residential accounts have been phased in, and one hauler has phased in all accounts - residential, multi family, and commercial. The other two haulers have some commercial and multi family accounts phased in, but not all. Staff should have a better sense of the true nnmber of accounts phased in later this spring. Included in the provisions of the ordinance is a reporting requirement. Staff received report from all three haulers for 2005 (which only includes only the month of Dee ember). Staff is working with all three haulers and the County to improve upon the initial report form. Staff wants to make sure all three haulers are using a similar process, and will be switching to measuring volumes in tons only. The County will also provide valuable information on recycling volumes, in particular the volume resulting from the Rio Grande Recycle Center. The goal is to have a reporting system that will provide an accurate recycling rate for the City of Aspen. Staff will be able to measure future progress by the change in the recycling rate for successive years. (See Attachment A - Hauler Report 2005) Challenges and Obstacles The two main challenges staff encounter relate to cost and space. To address space, staff offers variations on container options, and will do, and has done, numerous site visits. Often time there is a lot more space than people realize, and there are options to have shelves for cardboard rather than needing a large dumpster. In many situations staff finds plenty of space for recycle bins, and in other situations staff finds that although space may not be apparent at fist glance, a more thorough analysis of the site results in finding and/or creating sufficient space. Not all locations will have easy options for adding recycle bins, but staff is confident options can be worked out to make room for recycling. As for cost, once haulers sent out proposed new rates, staff began getting many calls about rate increases. (Staffreceived many complaints from customers of two of the three waste haulers and did not receive any complaints from customers of the third trash hauler. At this point this hauler also has all commercial and multi family accounts operating under the ordinance, and staff has received no calls from these customers.) Staff has been able to help these customers reverse their large rate increases by having them ask for a different service than the one their hauler was pricing. (Staff also has suggested that unhappy customers call the other haulers.) For example, a hauler might offer a price of $200/quarter for two large dumpsters picked up weekly, along with smaller recycling containers. The customer might need much smaller containers picked up much less often, and if they ask for that service, their costs are much lower. We have helped some businesses share with their neighbors to reduce costs and have helped several customers find locations or different storage systems for their recycling. Some customers are being told the City requires one thing or will not allow something else - things that the haulers do not want to do but that are NOT prohibited by the City. When told of such misinformation, staff contacts the haulers to try to make sure they provide correct information. Staff has also had to ensure that two of the three haulers inform their customers of the range of container sizes and pickup frequencies they provide, as required in the ordinance. (See Attachment B - How Residents can Improve Recycling Service) An additional challenge is providing citizens with options for yard waste. Residents who have called Environmental Health are not content with mulching mowers, backyard compo sting, or driving yard waste to the Solid Waster Center. Staff has heard positive feedback from citizens when staff mentions the potential for an in town drop off and a list of businesses that will provide curbside yard waste pick up. Outreach Initial outreach efforts focused on getting the word out in all possible ways. Staff ran ads in the papers, aired two separate City Vues (one specific to the provisions of the recycling ordinance, and one on how to recycle), created a webpage, went door to door to hundreds of businesses, and included an insert in the Utility bill. The second stage of outreach mostly centered around working one on one with individuals who called with questions and/or complaints. Staff was very successful in easing the concerns of those who called and helping them find space for recycling and get a price they were comfortable with. While many of these calls were from residents, staff also helped businesses and multi family complexes, as well as property managers. (See Attachment C - Status of Ordinance September to February.) During this time, staff was also in the process of developing additional educational material, and creating new programs to further encourage recycling. Current outreach is focused on moving forward with new program ideas, and really targeting businesses. The initial phasing of the ordinance put staff in contact with a number of residents, and staff feels there is a good level of understanding on the residential side. Clearly staff will do more to expand residential recycling and have plans to make greater progress, but staff will be shifting to be more commercial focused during the spring and summer. These efforts geared towards businesses include adding information on recycling to the semi annual Food Service Newsletter - this newsletter will go to all retail food establishments in the City. Staff also has information prepared to send to all hotels/lodges/inns and cleaning service companies and will distribute it as soon as staff compiles a mailing list. Another program staff hopes to expand is "Sustainable Aspen" - a consulting service free to business. Staff will work with businesses to help them create effective and successful recycling programs specific to their business or office. Staff has also prepared a new web site specific to recycling. (This is not up and running yet but hopefully will be by the end of summer.) Examples of Success Mill Street Plaza Recycling - Staff worked with M& W properties, who manage Mill Street Plaza, and the Wheeler to establish a system ofrecycling that allows for Mill Street Plaza to expand its recycling efforts. The Wheeler has increased the number of recycling bins on their property to allow Mill Street to also take advantage of recycling opportunities (Mill Street businesses do not have enough space on their property for recycling bins.) There have been some issues of overflowing recycling bins and staff is now in the process of fine tuning this arrangement to make it more effective. Staff is also going to be working with M& W to hopefully use this as a case study - with increased volumes now going to recycling, there should be a decrease and the volume of material going into Mill Street dumpsters. Property Management - Through the work of implementing this ordinance, staff has developed a good rapport with a number of the property management companies in town. Staff walked the alleys with multiple property managers to identify space and options for recycling for all the properties managed by those management companies. Staff has also worked with a maintenance company who is responsible for maintenance of numerous downtown businesses. Staff was able to help one property manager work with a particularly troublesome condo complex. The property manager was able to call Environmental Health when there were issues with contamination, and staff was able to respond by circulating additional educational material to the complex and adding signage to the bins - alleviating the contamination issues. ACRA Lunch - Staff provided information on recycling at the ACRA lunch. In response, the Town of SnoWllass Village will be using the material provided for their recycling programs. Although this is not directly tied to Aspen, we see this as a great stride for recycling. All of the recycling in the valley goes to the Solid Waste Center, by having universal information for the valley, there are fewer issues with mixed messages and confusion over what and how to recycle. How to Increase Recycling by Downtown Businesses Cardboard - Staffs outreach efforts outlined above are all geared to increase recycling, including cardboard recycling. Staff s surveillance efforts will put staff in a position to see first hand where cardboard recycling is working, and where it needs to be improved. Staff can also target known areas of high cardboard volumes not currently being recycled and work specifically with those businesses. Staff is in the middle of this process with Clark's market. Surveillance - Staff is beginning alley surveillance to I )make sure the ordinance has been implemented (for accounts not exempt) and 2) to help business.es and the haulers make recycling more effective. Surveillance will also give staff a more thorough understanding of the actual application of the ordinance. Case Studies - Staff is looking for businesses and/or multi family complexes (and residents) to use as case studies for the benefits of recycling. Mill Street Plaza and Smuggler Trailer Park are two potential case studies staff will be pursuing. Both Mill St and Smuggler have added recycling and recycling/yard waste, respectively, and if they are willing, are in a position to provide valuable information to staff on how volumes and overall prices changed. Having case studies will be a valuable tool when working with businesses to increase recycling. Code Amendments - Staff is also hoping to add language to Land Use codes to include a requirement to allocate space for recycling in addition to, and separate, from space that is currently required for utility/trash service area. Other - Staff is proactively working with certain businesses to increase recycling even if the ordinance does not yet apply. Staff has done this with Mill Street Plaza and is working with Clark's market. If Council has suggestions or knows of other locations that staff should pro actively work with, please let staff know.