Recycle Utah

Nonprofit Summit County, Utah Recycling Center

Sustainable Materials

Sustainable Holiday Planning

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The holidays are upon us and being green can require foresight. Americans throw away 25% more trash and 33% more food between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Read on for tips to keep your sustainability in check this holiday season:

  1. Gifts: Support our local economy, less packaging and a lower carbon footprint by buying local verses online. Buy local gift cards and experiences at favorite restaurants, movies or spas. Bake, knit, frame photos, make jewelry or fun playlists. Shop at thrift stores.
  2. Gift Wrap: Use old comics, maps or reusable fabrics for a fun twist. Save bows, ribbons and gift boxes for next year.
  3. Energy: Use only LED holiday lights inside and out for energy efficiency, financial savings and also to generate less heat on trees and garland. And, recycle old electronics.
  4. Transportation: Errands galore! Try to hit as many stops as possible in one trip rather than a few every day. Try the bus – make a NO CAR pledge day. Be smart and organized, and don’t forget the cloth reusable bags!
  5. Tree: Buy sensibly. Many lot-filled trees have been sprayed so ask questions. Obtain a permit to cut a tree or buy a new houseplant to decorate. Fake trees are okay if you can commit to storing and using it for 20+ years. Lastly, always compost your tree through the local program at a community drop-off. 

This holiday – and beyond – have a closer look at what you buy for yourself and others. Like dominoes, our day-to-day efforts will start to spiral towards a positive result if we all partake.

By Mary Closser

This Thanksgiving Be Thankful, Not Wasteful

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For many, Thanksgiving is a time filled with family gatherings, time-honored traditions, and, best of all, delicious food. However, did you know that in the U.S. during Thanksgiving week, according to NRDC, over 200 million pounds of food will be thrown out? Here are a few ways to reduce food waste, and your carbon footprint, while still enjoying the holiday:

  1. Ready-set-plan: Make a menu plan for the holiday meals you are serving and create a thorough grocery list. Stick to the list in the grocery store and buy only what you need. 
  2. Buy local: If possible, buy local or organic food. The closer the food, the lower the environmental impact thanks to fewer “food miles”.
  3. Toss the turkey: Traditionally, turkey is the star of the Thanksgiving meal, but raising one 16-pound turkey is the equivalent of driving your car over 180 miles! If your guests are feeling adventurous, many brands offer plant-based alternatives.
  4. Get festive for the feast: This is the time to break out the good dishes and linens. Not only will you create a beautiful setting for your meal, but you will also reduce the need for single-use items such as paper plates or plastic cups.
  5. Prepare to share: If you are hosting guests, ask them to bring reusable containers so everyone can share in the leftovers!

We have so many reasons to be thankful this year! Enjoy this special holiday–and maybe start a few new “green” traditions this Thanksgiving.

By Pearson Ehrich

Eco-Handwarmers

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Winter is approaching, including cold ski days – what does one do about eco-friendly hand warmers? We know about the heaps of trash being deposited into landfills, so how can we help reduce this? It’s so easy to purchase low-cost plastic-wrapped, single-use hand warmers, but what’s in these things anyway, in addition to the waste alone?

The hand and foot warmer industry is growing! There are currently four types on the market: 1. Disposable Air-activated, 2. Reusable sodium acetate, 3. Lighter Fuel, and 4. Reusable/Rechargeable.

Air-activated hand warmers emit heat when exposed to air. After all the iron has reacted, this product is most likely landfilled. Most of these single-use warmers can be toxic – you wouldn’t want your pet to eat them. Sodium Acetate warmers require a bit of labor but are a decent reusable option. Reusable lighter-fuel warmers are interesting and lastly there are battery-operated warmers. Any warmer that is reusable is the most cost efficient, depending on how often you require warmers.

Air-activated warmers are only compostable if the filling is organic. If the inner compounds are synthetic (usually), soil will be damaged. Moral of the story – know your product. If hand and foot warmers are a necessity for you or your family, perhaps it’s time for a battery charged option (with reusable batteries) or even the Sodium Acetate variety. If you rarely use warmers, then disposables may suffice. This is life. Weigh it out, always considering the landfill, our water, air, and soil. Good luck!

By Mary Closser

Happy (Green) Halloween!

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It’s Halloween time! Unfortunately, this season is often marked by plastic-fibered, cheaply produced costumes, masks, and decorations that are made in highly polluting overseas factories and shipped to big box stores. Americans spend billions of dollars on this stuff. And after a year or two? They throw it in the trash.

“Trick or treat!” Halloween’s #1 fun-filled activity is about collecting individual plastic-wrapped sweets in large plastic bags. And what usually happens to the leftovers? They are thrown in the trash.

Pumpkins galore! Often trucked to us from faraway commercial farms. We carve them into Halloween faces. Fun! Most end up in landfills where, like all food waste, they produce methane gas.

Make Halloween a green holiday. Organize and participate in a costume swap. Use parts of costumes to create new looks. Hit thrift shops and put costumes together from reusable materials. Make festive decorations made out of organic material. Store everything for another year. Buy locally grown pumpkins, gourds and corn stalks. Use pumpkin flesh for baking and seeds for roasting a tasty snack. Leftover pieces are nutritious food for animals such as squirrels and deer. Compost pumpkins. Use small recyclable or reusable trick or treat bags and consider how many sweets you want your children and you to eat. Don’t end up throwing out sweets in their plastic wrappers!

Enjoy the season’s experiences without the waste – Fall Harvest Festivals, Corn Mazes, Halloween Yards, BooLights, WitchFests, Pumpkin Days, hayrides, Little Haunts, Halloween Trains, Haunted Hollows, films, fun runs. Happy Halloween!

By Bev Harrison

Preserving the Harvest

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It’s the height of harvest season which means an abundance of produce! Sometimes, a large harvest can result in food waste when not planned correctly. If you don’t know what to do with your harvest, try canning!

Food preservation, like canning, has been around for centuries and it wasn’t too long ago that these methods were common knowledge. Most home canning involves a method called water bath canning.  Supplies needed include a large pot, canning rack, unused mason jars, a jar lifter, and a funnel. Here are the basic steps:

  1. Boil the jars in water to sanitize them before filling them with produce.
  2. Once sanitized, fill a hot jar with prepared food (following a trusted canning recipe) using your funnel and make sure to leave some space.
  3. Wipe the rim and seal your jars with the lids, twisting the band securely.
  4. Place the jars onto a rack in a pot with simmering water, covering the jars with at least 1 inch of water. Boil jars according to your recipe (add more minutes for higher altitudes).
  5. Turn off the heat and let the jars sit for 5 minutes. Then, take the jars out and let them cool for a day.
  6. Check to make sure your jars are sealed properly!

Home canning is a great way to eat local all year long while also reducing food waste. Other great food preservation methods include pickling and canning. Check out USUS Extension’s Food Preservation Resources for more info at https://extension.usu.edu/preserve-the-harvest/canning !

Produce Out of the Bag

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Many of us are in the habit of bringing our own reusable bags to the grocery store. Hooray! Unfortunately, not so many of us have significantly reduced our use of plastic produce bags. And especially during this season of abundant fruits and vegetables, these filmy polyethylene produce bags are rapidly spinning off their rollers. Resist!

Now these bags, like all plastic bags made from sheets of polymer film, can be recycled into new materials. For this to happen, they must be stuffed into a plastic bag collection box located in the front of many retailers or taken to Recycle Utah. This collection system and the processing equipment required to recycle plastic bags is different from that provided by curbside programs. So—plastic bags should never go in our bins!

Considering these points will help you decide not to grab a plastic produce bag for your next purchase of fruits and vegetables.

*All plastic bags can be used again and again. Use your produce bags repeatedly. Just place them in the bottom of your grocery bags.

*Go bagless with produce that has a rind or inedible skin, like bananas, citrus, avocados, corn.

*Forego taking a bag for single produce items, like broccoli or peppers. Putting them in a bag may reduce bacteria in a few steps along the way, but it does not eliminate germs. That’s why we wash produce before eating it.

*Purchase your own produce bags made of washable, biodegradable fibers like cotton, hemp and jute fabric or mesh.

By Bev Harrison