The Aspen City Council says it would like to be as aggressive as possible in creating a comprehensive plan for diverting waste from the landfill and incentivizing the community to generate less trash. Senior environmental health specialist for the city, Liz Chapman, presented elected officials with three scenarios last week that balanced spending and timelines in achieving the council’s goal of waste reduction. A status quo scenario would mean the city makes no further investments than what it already spends on waste management. Current predictions are that without adjustments, the local landfill will be out of capacity in three to 10 years.

A middle of the road scenario was presented, “Scenario B,” that would include hiring dedicated staff members and concentrating on the number one sector attributed to landfill accumulation — construction waste. A third scenario would cost the city upwards of $250,000 per year, including a fully staffed department with funds for subsidizing commercial and private waste diversion programs. “Scenario C would be, we want to aim for a net-zero community as fast as we can get there, and we are going to spend a whole bunch of money in order to do it,” Chapman explained to the council.

While the council has listed waste management as a top priority, they stopped shy of giving the greenlight to the full-blown build-out of the most aggressive scenario. Collectively, they pushed for somewhere between the middle ground and top-producing scenarios. “I would be willing to start with $100,000 and see what can we get done with that,” said councilmember Rachel Richards.

Councilmember Ann Mullins pointed out that if the goal was to build programming that would help extend the life of the landfill, there would be costs involved. “[Scenario] C is the only one that gets us to zero the same year the landfill closes,” Mullins said.

To read the full story, visit https://www.aspendailynews.com/news/aspen-city-council-puts-its-money-where-its-mouth-is-for-waste-diversion-program/article_6dcc2660-3dba-11eb-a49a-133d8244ddf0.html.
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