Recycling concrete and asphalt started in the early 1990s to speed up Colorado Springs Utilities’ turnaround time on water, gas and sewer line repairs.By producing its own materials, Utilities wouldn’t have to have workers idling in lines at gravel and asphalt plants waiting for a load.Reusing material removed from streets when water and sewer lines were dug up also meant trucks wouldn’t have to haul the material to a landfill and saved the cost of having it buried.Although the principal driver was turnaround time, the program has had a twofold payoff.It saves ratepayers about $6 million a year, and it’s good for Mother Nature – Utilities sends almost none of the old concrete, asphalt, pipe and metal to landfills.”We were green and we didn’t even know it,” said Dan Fields, Utilities section leader in the water systems maintenance division who oversees the program.The program got going after a west-side landfill closed, forcing the city to reassess how it disposed of old materials.Recycling is done in a basin off Highway 85/87 and Las Vegas Street, where two workers process 300,000 tons of material annually.They screen it and pile fill dirt, asphalt and crushed concrete to be used after Utilities digs into streets.Utilities replaces 35,000 feet of water pipes a year.”We figure if it comes out of the ground, we can stick it back in there,” Fields said.Not having to pay landfills saves about $2.6 million, not including the fuel the city would use driving to and from distant dumps.Other savings come from not buying asphalt, fill dirt and crushed rock. Some labor costs also have been deferred, and metals, such as old pipes and wires, are recycled through a separate metals program.CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazettedev.gazette.com

At the Forestry Operations Center on Monday, Maintenance Supervisor Mike Gigg, left, and Equipment Operator Dan Farkas, both with Stormwater Enterprise, stood on a giant pile of garbage, debris and other junk they pulled out. Photo by (BRYAN OLLER, THE GAZETTE)