It’s been over a month since the city of Aspen stopped accepting cardboard recycling due to budget cuts, and it’s likely that the material is ending up in the local landfill. Cardboard recycling is included in residential trash service by city ordinance, but it is not for businesses, many of which relied on the Rio Grande Recycle Center drop-off. Those businesses have included contractors, property management companies and bike and ski shops that regularly deal with large volumes of cardboard.
The elimination of cardboard drop-off service by the city comes during a time when ordering online is at an all-time high because of COVID-19 restrictions, and more people are dwelling in the Aspen area and are big consumers. Josh Burnaman, director of operations at Alpine Property Management, said the company used the Rio Grande facility’s cardboard drop-off when their dumpster was full. “Our cardboard dumpster is next to our trash dumpster and we are throwing away a good chunk of it and we feel bad about it,” he said. “It was a real hit to lose that service.”
Burnaman said there’s a huge uptick in cardboard coming in as clients are sending their packages directly to the Aspen office so the property management company can deliver them. “We are bracing for not having an offseason, our rentals are full, people are staying longer, kids aren’t going to school,” he said. Alpine Property Management’s cardboard dumpster in the alley behind Main Street was overflowing last week and the next scheduled pickup was Aug. 22. “We are calling to have extra pickup,” Burnaman said.
Prior to the city’s cutting of cardboard services at Rio Grande Recycle Center, about 240 cubic yards of cardboard were picked up there every week by Mountain Waste & Recycling, according to Doug Goldsmith, the company’s regional sales manager. That’s the equivalent of filling a 600-square-foot apartment with a 10-foot ceiling — wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling — with flattened cardboard.
The city encourages businesses to drop off their cardboard at the Pitkin County Solid Waste Center, which is free, or pay for additional service from area waste haulers. Goldsmith said he has not seen a corresponding increase in businesses signing up for additional cardboard pickup, noting there has been a surge in trash overall due to more consumption because of COVID-19. What he has seen, however, is more cardboard in trash dumpsters. “It’s going somewhere,” he said last week. “My guess is it’s all going in the trash.”
Cathy Hall, manager at the county’s solid waste center, said she has not seen an increase in cardboard drop-off at the landfill. The city is saving $150,000 a year by ending its contract with Mountain Waste & Recycling for cardboard pickup at the Rio Grande center, as well as a planned capital investment of buying a compactor for $150,000.