Recycle Utah

Nonprofit Summit County, Utah Recycling Center

#greentips

Winterizing Your Home the Green Way

by

It’s October, which means winter is around the corner! Winterizing your home the green way not only safeguards the environment but also significantly reduces your energy bills. Embrace these tips and make sustainability a cozy affair!

  • Wrap your Pipes: Insulating pipes prevent freezing and energy wastage. Materials like newspaper and rags make for great options. 
  • Inspect the Roof and Gutters: Clean and clear gutters prevent ice dams, reducing energy costs. Checking your roof for damage and repairing them timely ensures better insulation and reduced heating needs.
  • Weatherproof Doors and Windows: Sealing gaps and installing weather stripping around doors and windows prevents cold drafts, making your heating system work more efficiently.
  • Thermostats: Consider installing a programmable thermostat. It helps in maintaining the desired temperature and cuts down on unnecessary heating, saving both energy and money.
  • Water Heaters: Insulate your water heater or opt for energy-efficient models to conserve energy.
  • Switch to LED Lights: Longer nights mean more artificial lighting. LEDs use significantly less energy compared to traditional bulbs. Opt for LED holiday lights too!
  • Natural Heating: Harness the sun’s power! Open curtains on south-facing windows during the day to allow sunlight in, warming up your space naturally.
  • Insulated Curtains: They trap heat and prevent cold drafts, proving to be both an eco-friendly and aesthetic addition to your interiors.

Tori Sowul, The Drawdown Fund

The Carbon Footprint of Streaming

by

Many of our everyday activities have environmental consequences: how we dispose of waste, what we eat, how we move around. Most of us are familiar with the impacts that these activities have on our planet. Each one uses energy, produces emissions, and therefore contributes to a carbon footprint. But what about the activities that aren’t so straightforward? Have you ever wondered how streaming—something billions of people do every day—impacts the environment?

Streaming relies on a vast infrastructure of data centers, networks, and devices like computers, phones, and TVs. All these elements contribute to the carbon footprint of streaming, accounting for a significant portion of global carbon emissions. The demand for high-definition streaming continues to rise, leading to the expansion of this infrastructure.

When considering the environmental impact of streaming, it’s essential to consider the production of the devices used for streaming. The manufacturing of these devices is energy-intensive and often reliant on fossil fuels, further contributing to carbon emissions. 

Video streaming has a carbon footprint comparable to activities like boiling a kettle or microwaving popcorn. While individual streaming habits do matter, the continuous operation of data centers and networks independent of the number of users streaming is a significant part of the problem. Switching to renewable energy will significantly decrease the emissions of these data centers, and therefore the emissions of streaming in general. Many of the big players in the streaming industry have committed to sourcing their energy from renewable sources, which will be a major step in making media consumption more sustainable in the future.

Although much of the impact of streaming is out of the consumer’s hands, there are several things we can do to reduce the environmental impact of streaming. When possible, stream from a less energy-intensive device. Watching on your laptop or phone uses a fraction of the energy required to stream on a TV. Download files when you can. And most importantly, use your devices for as long as you can. Dispose of old devices correctly. You can drop off old TVs, computers, and smartphones at Recycle Utah!

Streaming is a popular and convenient way to consume media, but it’s not without environmental consequences. By being mindful of our streaming habits and supporting sustainable initiatives in the industry, we can work towards a more environmentally friendly streaming future. 

By Chelsea Hafer

Have a Happy Green Halloween Season!

by

Have a Happy Green Halloween Season!

There are lots of easy ways to make your Halloween green this year. The holiday 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? Many of us throw it in the trash. Instead, donate your used costumes or use pieces to re-costume. Check out thrift shops and swap costumes with friends for “new” costumes. Create costumes from recyclables. Sew up some custom outfits or rent something “spooktacular.”

“Trick or treat!” Halloween’s #1 fun-filled activity is about collecting individual plastic-wrapped sweets in plastic bags or pails. Instead, use small recyclable or reusable bags and consider how many sweets you want your children and you to eat. Leftovers? Don’t throw them away—drop the sweets off at Recycle Utah for a staff treat!

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. Instead pick out locally grown pumpkins, gourds, and corn stalks. Use pumpkin flesh for baking; seeds for roasting a tasty snack. Leftover pieces are nutritious food for animals such as squirrels and deer. Compost pumpkins, gourds, and corn stalks. Stay tuned for more sustainable pumpkin disposal tips in a Green Tip later this month.

To make the best green Halloween check out Summit County, Park City, and Heber Valley visitor websites for a list of local fall family activities you might not otherwise think of: fall harvest festivals and hay rides, corn mazes, Halloween yards, WitchFest, Pumpkin Days, Little Haunts, Halloween train rides, Haunted Hollows, Halloween films, and even an opportunity to swim with pumpkins! Don’t miss Halloween on Historic Main Street in Park City!

By Bev Harrison

Talking About Climate Change

by

How often do you talk about climate change or hear someone else talk about it? If you responded, “not much,” you are not alone. Only 24% of Americans have heard Climate Change discussed in their social circle.

To stop the goliath that is climate change, we need to talk about the issue and solutions. We also need to get as many people on board with climate initiatives as possible, including people who are otherwise unmotivated or unconvinced of the need to act. The only way to do that is, you guessed it, to talk about it. So, how should we go about this?

  1. Have non-judgmental discussions. Open-minded discussions about emotional topics lead to lasting opinion changes and increased concern about an issue. They increase the chances that participants want to act.
  2. Focus on values and personal experiences. In climate discussions, this could mean talking about family, religion, community, recreation, patriotism, and how climate change affects them all.
  3. Rather than focusing on doom and gloom facts, be optimistic. Discuss the potential for solutions that benefit not just the planet, but also our economy, health, and equality.

Here is the best part about all of this: those who we talk to about climate change then discuss it with their social circle, creating a positive feedback loop. Only 22% of those who rarely discuss climate change talk about it with their family and friends, while 76% of those who discuss climate change at least once a month talk about it to their family and friends.

So, let’s all challenge ourselves to talk to someone about climate change and see where the action takes us.

Montana Burack, Senior at Park City High School

From Summit County’s Solid Waste Superintendent, “Please recycle your cardboard!”

by

The increase in mail order and consumer packaging has dramatically increased the amount of old corrugated cardboard (OCC) being dumped at the Summit County Three Mile Canyon Landfill in Coalville. Tim Loveday, the County’s Waste Management Superintendent, states that this is a “real problem and it’s frustrating.”

The problem? Like any other landfill garbage, breaking down OCC produces greenhouse gas. Also, compacted OCC takes up about two and a half times more space when compared to other compacted waste– 700 pounds of OCC compared to 1600 pounds of other waste per cubic yard. Dumping OCC is shortening the projected thirty-five-year lifespan of the landfill by one year for every ten. There’s room for four more double-lined pits or “cells” on the property. One is needed now, and Loveday has requested 3.3 million dollars in the County’s 2024 budget to create it.

Especially frustrating is the fact that when OCC is recycled it earns municipalities and recyclers money. Loveday says Summit County has made money on it in past years; this year they are breaking even. Curbside recycling is capturing 39% of residential OCC, which means we are still dumping about 60% of it. Households that don’t have or use curbside recycling must take their OCC to Recycle Utah or to the landfill where if separated out, it is easily placed into on-site OCC-only dumpsters for recycling. Still, landfill staff see users throwing OCC into the mixed trash dumpsters. Throw away enough OCC, and you’re throwing away money. The message to recycle OCC is an old oft repeated one. Loveday is still asking us, perhaps with more urgency, to sort and recycle your old corrugated cardboard!

By Bev Harrison

Fast Fashion

by

Are you tired of your clothes and in need of a shopping spree? Maybe a wedding is on the horizon and a new zippy dress or suit sounds divine. Yet, you’ve heard of the negative impact of the fashion industry on our planet. So, what can you do? It’s true, Europe and the United States are the biggest culprits for clothing waste. Cotton is water-intensive and insecticide heavy; leather is often associated with Chromium, a carcinogen; synthetics like polyester, nylon, and rayon are made from fossil fuels, accounting for more than 60% of clothing today.

Clothing may travel thousands of miles before arriving on our doorstep due to the complicated supply chain structure. The microplastics and dyes from clothing can seep into our water system in the wash. After a while of owning it, you tire of it and want to do away with it. So, where can you take it? 85% of U.S. textile waste ends up in landfills or incinerators and polyester can take decades to break down.

How can you sustainably shop and do away with clothes?

  1. Stop buying so much.
  2. Donate to thrift stores and buy from thrift stores or online secondhand clothing sites.
  3. Rent clothing. More and more online platforms do this!
  4. Donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters bins around town. Big Brothers Big Sisters accept any textile, including old towels, sheets, or accessories and will either resell, donate, or repurpose those items. Find a bin here.
  5. Know your manufacturer (some are more pro-active than others with sustainability). Learn more here.

Clothing is fun! It’s how we express ourselves. Though times are changing and so must our creativity in moving towards simplistic, long-lasting styles with clothing, shoes, accessories, housewares, and more. Everything we own has a footprint.

By Mary Closser