City wants construction firms to do more recycling

By Oakley Brooks

Saratogans recycle at a rate that's better than the state standard. But city officials are looking into ways to further reduce the city's contribution to local landfills.

The Saratoga Public Works Department is currently working on a law that would require construction firms to recycle and reuse material from demolition and new construction projects.

The city presently diverts about 56 percent of its waste from landfills through recycling and other methods such as reuse and composting.

Most of the diversion comes from businesses and homes.

Although a state law, passed in 1989, mandates that only 50 percent of a city's waste be diverted from the landfill, city officials are trying to stay ahead of the curve.

"We're not in a place where we need to be worried," said Public Works Administrative Analyst Cary Bloomquist. "But to be proactive, we need to keep moving on this."

Bloomquist, who is researching and drawing up the construction recycling ordinance, says contractors are already reusing some materials. He notes that old asphalt is often ground up and used for walking trails in the area.

But Bloomquist estimates that contractors are still only recycling less than half of all the material that could be diverted from landfills.

An ordinance would require that a portion of materials from building tear-downs, remodels and re-roofing jobs be reused on a job site or be separated out from waste and sent to recycling centers.

Under a tentative plan the city has explored, the contractors would, in effect, police themselves by tracking the materials on job sites that were reused, recycled or sent to landfills.

Contractors would file a final waste reduction form with the city's building department soon after a completed project.

Violations could draw a lien that would restrict use of the property where the recycling ordinance was breached. The contractors could also be subject to monetary fines. Bloomquist says he still isn't sure about the city's penalty framework. He's in the process of reshaping a recycling ordinance from the city of Atherton. Because that city is smaller and its house tear-down rate is a bit lower than Saratoga's, the city council has directed Bloomquist to considerably change the Atherton document.

Bloomquist estimates that when an ordinance is in place in Saratoga, the city could reduce waste sent to landfills by up to 60 percent.

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