Recycle Utah

Nonprofit Summit County, Utah Recycling Center

Transportation

Join the Crowd of Local Free-Fare Transit Travelers

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Transit travelers are decreasing their carbon footprint by approximately 4 pounds of CO2 for each hour of drive time. (EPA). Since its launch in July 2021, Summit County’s High Valley Transit (HVT) ridership has grown to almost 1.5 million. People are taking 1000 daily rides on Micro-transit; they have made 14,000 bus trips between Park City and Heber City since November 2022.

To make transit convenient, learn how to use the HVT and MyStop (Park City) apps or use Google Maps. Click on trip planning and set your pick-up location and destination. In real-time, you’ll see different pick-up times at the nearest stop, the time it will take you to get there; the specific bus or buses you can take; and your arrival time.

Get a comprehensive Ride Guide, go to the bus schedules tab in the HVT app or the Park City Transit website (schedule and routes) to check out the different bus numbers and colors, and their scheduled arrival times at different stops. Understand that these are the times you can expect a bus to arrive at a stop under “normal” weather and traffic conditions, full employment, and a fully operational fleet.

Remember, peak traffic and inclement weather affect vehicle and transit travel alike. And because buses can legally travel in the breakdown lanes on routes 224 and 248, your actual bus travel time could be faster than driving during heavy traffic conditions.

Taking the bus may be comparable in time to driving your vehicle when you consider parking and walking to where you want to be. Try asking someone your transit questions. They just might tell you the information you need to take a ride.

Protect Your Lungs

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The winter season in Utah is in full swing bringing an increase in pollution through inversions. The State of Utah also estimates that each year 19.3 metric tons of carbon dioxide are emitted per person into the atmosphere annually. These factors produce devastating impacts on our air quality, which can be harmful to our environment and health. 

Air pollution can affect us by impacting our heart and respiratory health. Chances of stroke, heart disease, and other illnesses become increasingly more likely due to poor air quality. 

Here are some of the ways that you can protect your lungs:

  • Fruits and Vegetables: Fruits and vegetables have been shown to contain phytonutrients that offer protection for the lungs, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and other essential health benefits. Apples are one of the fruits proven to provide benefits such as reduced lung cancer and asthma risks. These can be a great addition to any diet!
  • Plants: Studies have shown that houseplants can clean your air by removing Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from your air. Some plants achieve this and are low maintenance, such as the peace lily, snake plants, English ivy, and dracaenas. 
  • Teas: Many types of teas have antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, and anti-bacterial properties that may improve our lung health. Tulsi, green, and turmeric tea are some of the best options!
  • Air Purifiers: Air purifiers can also be an excellent way to keep the air clean in your home. These devices are a great investment in monitoring your air quality while also cleaning your air by eliminating smoke, allergens, odors, and dust. 

By Miriam Flores

Air Travel

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Last weekend while judging a local high school debate tournament, the affirmative team promoted enhancing communication amongst NATO allies to prevent wars and other global conflicts. They suggested ZOOM calls and other forms of virtual communication rather than traveling for in-person meetings. It got me think about air travel.

Air travel is expensive. If you were to compare Park City, Utah to Garden City, Kansas, the ratio of air trips per person would be significantly higher for Park City simply due to affluency. Many Park City folks travel regularly, sometimes monthly because they can. The beach, retreats, visiting friends and family, other ski resorts, and the list goes on…

When my friends from New Zealand visited me years ago, they had a hard time leaving Utah’s canyons and landscapes. Do we not realize and appreciate what we have in our own backyard? Not to mention the culture and natural gems that can be found in our neighboring states. The car, especially a fuel-efficient or electric one, will always trump the carbon footprint of a commercial plane seat.

Many now accept climate change and even claim to be eco-minded, but how many of our actions reflect our acceptance and desire to change? We may recycle and compost, reduce our energy and water usage, adapt our diet to eat less meat, buy more organic food and local products to reduce our footprint, but what about carbon-intensive “elephant in the room” air travel? Perhaps it’s time to alter our travel desires to local destinations and nix some business trips for the Zoom room. If NATO can do it, surely we can. 

By Mary Closser

Responsible Air Travel

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Flights are extremely energy-intensive requiring on average a gallon of fuel per second while in the air. Commercial flights are responsible for anywhere between 2% to 4% of the greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere. Airlines receive major fuel subsidies that don’t incentivize or encourage sustainability in the air travel industry. So, while flying has allowed for incredible cultural and societal advances, it’s important to recognize the environmental impacts flying has and take steps to support a more sustainable air travel industry.

As the holiday season approaches and increased travel is inevitable, here are some green tips when booking flights:

  1. Research and choose flights with airlines that are taking efforts to mitigate their environmental impact.
  2. Shorten your itinerary and take nonstop flights! Multiple flights and layovers only increase your air travel and thus, your air travel emissions.
  3. Fly during the day! The plane itself and the clouds it creates help reflect solar heat during the day.
  4. When possible, take ground transportation and limit your air travel entirely.
  5. Purchase carbon offsets yourself and donate to organizations that work to offset carbon emissions.
  6. Take political action! Vote for elected officials that will hold airlines responsible for their carbon emissions and get involved with organizations that are calling for environmental action.

While these green air travel tips are important, they can also be an extra cost to unregulated flight prices due to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. If you’re financially able to take on these extra costs to reduce your air travel carbon footprint, it’s especially important that you do.

By Addison Marr

Vehicles: An Unexpected Source of Fire Danger

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While we live in a beautiful ski town, Park City is also a high-mountain desert; with that comes the threat of summer forest fires. Fire safety is as important as ever considering Utah’s severe state of drought. There are some simple steps we can all take to protect our precious town from the dangers that fires impose, especially when it comes to our vehicles.

Vehicles are an all too common source of local fires, due to a few common factors. It is important to not park a hot car on dry grass, as this can lead to the grass catching on fire. Maintaining normal tire pressure is also quite significant as a tire blowout on the highway can easily start a fire. Objects dangling from cars traveling down highways at 70+mph can create dangerous sparks. Therefore, it is important to secure trailer chains to make sure they don’t drag and spark a fire. For off road vehicles, it is also important to have spark arrestors in them (a mechanical device that traps hot exhaust particles ejected from a combustion engine).  

It is not an understatement to say it is vital to maintain the overall health of your vehicle. In fact, the Lambs Canyon fire of 2021 was started by a simple malfunction of a car’s catalytic converter. Be sure to car for your care with fire safety in mind to help protect our environment and community!

By Pearson Ehrich

The Environmental Cost of Online Shopping

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In the age of the internet, efficiency is everything, especially when it comes to e-commerce. Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) like personal care and homecare products are increasingly ordered online rather than in-store and are delivered within days of purchase. Factors such as delivery, packaging, and a perceived demand by consumers to receive goods faster all contribute to emissions and waste related to online shopping. But is it worse than going to the store yourself?

Truthfully, the environmental impact is more complicated than you’d think. Consumer behavior, waste, logistics, the type and amount of packaging, and the distance from distribution hub to store or home all play a role. A recent study published by MIT’s Real Estate Innovation Lab compiled research on both shopping options to address some of these complexities. Under specific circumstances, ordering goods for delivery actually has less of an impact on the environment because shoppers are making fewer individual trips. But change some of the assumptions, such as inefficient freight consolidation or amount of packaging, and the results favor in-store shopping.

When there is a perceived demand for receiving goods as fast as possible, companies will cater to the consumer. So, what’s the best thing you can do to avoid the online shopping conundrum? Be a conscious consumer! The less stuff you buy, online or in-store, the less you’ll contribute to waste and pollution. Think about alternative buying options for FMCGs such as buying in bulk, buying local, and consolidating trips to the store.

By Olivia Beckstead