Recycle Utah

Nonprofit Summit County, Utah Recycling Center

Thriving Community & Equity

Green Finance

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Climate change is a pressing concern in today’s world. However, climate solutions often seem to take a back seat to economic issues. When it comes to money, people usually listen—and since one of the biggest barriers to implementing sustainable policies and technologies is financial, it’s clear that our economic and environmental goals must be intertwined. The solution? A rise in green finance—both personal and commercial—is necessary to align the interests of money and sustainability.

When applied to businesses and corporations, green finance refers to decisions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in production and consumption, while maximizing resources and minimizing carbon footprints. But green finance also applies to everyday consumers. Here are some ways to make sure your finances reflect your green goals:

  • Invest in green mutual funds
  • Use Green banks
  • Support local, green businesses that implement sustainable production and eco-friendly products, like FulFILLed in the Outlets.
  • Prioritize using reusable/long-lasting containers and products instead of one-time use plastic–economic and sustainable!
  • Prioritize using reusable/long-lasting containers and products instead of one-time use plastic–economic and sustainable!
  • Conserve your water (and lower your water bill)
  • Use sustainable transportation. Carpooling, riding the bus, biking, and walking can all lower your gas bill and your carbon footprint.
  • Invest in a hybrid or electric vehicle. These vehicles emit far less harmful tailpipe emissions, and will lower your spending on gas.

By Grayson Rae

Farmers Markets

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Park City offers a great Mountain Farmers Market every Wednesday from 11AM-5PM at the Park City Mountain First Time Lift parking lot! Beginning on May 28th, the Farmers Market is a great way to connect with your local community this summer. Come by and see all the great things the Park City Farmers Market has to offer!

Here are couple of reasons Farmers Markets are a great, sustainable way to do your summer grocery shopping:

Decreased transportation costs: Because the produce and local goods bought at Farmers Markets typically come from your local community, there is significantly less shipping and handling associated with getting the produce from the farmer, to the distributor, to the grocery store, and onto your plate! This means less packaging, less greenhouse gas pollution from transportation, and fresher produce right from your community.

Supports local economy: Farmers only receive about 15 cents to the dollar when produce is
sold through conventional grocery store outlets. When farmers sell through farmers markets,
they can make significantly more profit on their own products. Buying locally is a great way to
support your local economy–$68 out of $100 stays in your community when buying locally, as
compared to $42 out of $100 when purchasing from a national chain.

Purchase in bulk: It is often easier (and encouraged!) to purchase produce in bulk at farmers markets rather than the grocery store. Because produce at farmers markets is typically not pre-packaged, you get to hand-pick the amount of produce you want to purchase prior to it being bagged for you. This is a great way to reduce packaging waste in your household!

Connect with local community and neighbors: Farmers Markets are a great way to meet or
catch up with community members you may not get to see regularly.

Park City’s farmers market, set upon a beautiful mountain landscape, is visited by many members of the Summit County community. Come by and shop local farmers’ produce, local cooks’ creations, local artwork, and hear from local non-profits working on different issues!

By Mia Moore

Shop Smart, Shop Green: Sustainable Online Ordering

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Online ordering—we all do it. It’s simple, satisfying, and incredibly convenient. One friend jokes that her husband even orders band-aids online just because he can. In 2020 alone, e-commerce sales jumped by $244 billion—a 43% increase over 2019.

The reason? COVID-19. We were fortunate to have the online option when we needed it, but now it’s 2025. Is it time to reassess the sustainability of our habitual finger-tapping versus the benefits of keeping it local? Buying local often has a lower environmental impact—mainly due to reduced transportation emissions and less packaging.

Additionally, buying local supports our local economy and community services with tax revenue versus benefitting another state’s budget. Consolidating errands or using public transit, walking, or biking to shop locally reduces the footprint even more versus long distances in gas-guzzling cars to pick up a single item. However, online ordering is sometimes necessary and it’s important to know how to optimize it. It’s easy to get carried away online—impulse buying, over-ordering, and then returning items. And with every return comes another truck on the road, adding to emissions! The biggest culprit behind the environmental cost of online shopping is speed. Rush delivery—from one hour to two days—creates serious inefficiencies. Delivery companies can’t afford to wait for all items to arrive at once, so they ship products piecemeal. Trucks head out half-full, increasing both traffic and emissions.

In summary:
● Make phone calls before driving around if in search of a specific item
● Be patient – Forego the ‘Need it Now’ mentality
● Plan smart for errands/distance to stores
● Only buy what you need
● Consider the packaging (Is it minimal? Reusable? Recyclable? Compostable?)
● Buy multiple things at once that can go into a single box vs piecemeal

Here’s to sustainable and smart shopping!

By Mary Closser

Every Drop Counts: Simple Water Conservation Tips to Protect Our Future

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With a strong current emphasis on composting, recycling, and waste, it can be easy to overlook the simple habits of water conservation that are just as vital. Water is the miracle solution that makes life possible on Earth. If we fail to save our water, it won’t be long before ecosystems will collapse and humanity will face dire consequences. Many of the current environmental dilemmas are associated with the failure to conserve water, specifically freshwater. Without clean water, agriculture would struggle, therefore hurting our economy and the livelihoods of farming communities; without clean water, there would be inadequate sanitation and higher vulnerability to diseases; without clean water, lakes, rivers, and reservoirs would dry up and deplete groundwater as well as impact water-dependent ecosystems, eliminating the biodiversity that ultimately sustains humankind. 

Here in Park City, we rely on water for our economy and recreational activities. Without clean water, we could not ski, swim, golf, boat, or raft down rivers. Without clean water, everything from individual lives to economies to the environment would be in distress.

If all individuals were to adopt conservation water practices, the compounded effort would have a positive effect on our environment. Here are some tips to conserve:

  • Turn off the faucet/shower when not using it (e.g. washing in the shower or brushing your teeth).
  • Take shorter showers! A 10-minute shower uses about 25 gallons of water.
  • Never pour water down the drain; instead, find another use for it, like watering plants or refilling water bowls for pets.
  • Repair leaks and drippage. 
  • Be laundry-aware (e.g. minimize the number of loads and fill them up)
  • Take showers instead of baths. 
  • “If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down.” 

More communities are starting to implement conservation practices: Californians after some extreme droughts and Capetown, South Africa after battling their 2017 drought. We should be no different, even when water is plentiful. It’s important to remember that our water does not belong to us; it is a resource we share with every other living thing and must be treated as such.

By Grayson Rae

Green Banking

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As the saying goes, “Money makes the world go ‘round.” And if you’re looking for a simple New Year’s resolution with outsized impact – take a look at your money.

Even if you can’t afford an EV or don’t want to put solar panels on your roof, switching your
bank is something anyone can do. Where we bank and invest our money matters – and there
are a growing number of options that offer “climate-positive” banking.

For example, Atmos Bank offers checking and savings accounts (and now, solar loans) with
100% of your money funding clean energy, electrification, and other climate-positive products. In addition to mobile banking, free ATM withdrawals, a good savings rate, and up to 5% cash back when you buy from climate-friendly companies, you get an impact report – $5,000 will save 5.85 tons of CO2 a year, the equivalent of not driving 13,169 miles.

Local credit unions are also a great option, in addition to more than 30 banks featured by “Bank For Good,” and Carbon Collective for your 401K. But if you bank with one of the big banks, your money is funding the fossil fuel industry. The biggest 60 banks in the world have invested $4.6 trillion in the fossil fuel industry since 2015. As climate activist Bill McKibben says, for any American with more than $125,000 in the mainstream banking system, it’s likely producing more carbon in a year than all the actions of their daily life.

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By Anna Robertson, The Cool Down

Take an Eco-Friendly Vacation

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My husband and I departed on August 24th for eight weeks of travel through a swath of the American-Canadian Rockies. Our home was a 16-foot hard-sided a-line pop-up trailer. Vacationing sustainably was a priority from the first moments of trip planning, when we

connected dots on a map to see as many places as we could in one long tight loop. We visited nine places. Our farthest point was Banff National Park in Alberta. Most of the time, it was easy to live sustainably on the road but unfortunately, we couldn’t divert our food waste, and had to throw out some recyclables when no bins were available at campgrounds.

Because our small rig folds down, it minimizes wind resistance; it’s lightweight and we travelled at or slower than the speed limit to maximize fuel efficiency. We packed light and organized everything for easy access. We packed an e-bike in the truck. We have a solar panel on the top of it to run a large cooler stored under the cap, along with an inverter and equipment. Two additional bikes on the back of the a-liner allowed us to cycle around campgrounds and on park trails.

At campsites, we set out a solar panel with an extra extension cord to generate electricity for interior light, hot water, and heat. RVers should reconsider their use of noisy gas or propane generators—after all, they’re living in direct sunlight. Use that light whenever possible. We have no toilet or shower and made it a priority to have access to restrooms. We paid for timed showers.

We were nearly always in bear country. Wildlife managers have long prioritized educating people that feeding bears is bad for them. Messaging everywhere makes it impossible not to know that food and toiletries must always be secured and bear spray should be carried when hiking. You risk being reprimanded by staff or another visitor if you disregard these rules. Additionally, park staff may temporarily close areas where wildlife is roaming close by especially with their young or during breeding season.

A shout out to the clean, beautiful town of Banff for establishing an aggressive zero-waste program in a free-roaming wildlife habitat. There are easily-visible bear-proof recycling and food disposal stations throughout town for residents and visitors to use. Backyard composting is not allowed as it attracts wildlife. For information about this excellent program and personal tips go to banff.ca/154/Zero-Waste-Banff.

By Bev Harrison