Recycle Utah

Nonprofit Summit County, Utah Recycling Center

#zerowaste

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

Waste to Energy

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What is Waste to Energy (WtE), and is it practical and clean? This concept of using heat to burn waste and generate power has been around since 1874 in the United Kingdom, followed by the first U.S. plant in 1885 in New York. It originated as a way to manage waste, but evolved into a two-prong benefit of capturing energy from the heat, as well. Denmark opened the first WtE facility in 1904, and they started to emerge in the U.S. by the mid 1900’s – today with 520 plants in Europe and 75 in the U.S.

Negative impacts from water discharge and air emissions gained politicians’ and citizens’
attention in the 1960’s, which eventually resulted in the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts in 1970. New standards and restrictions on particulate emissions were established, and those facilities that refused to comply closed. While the process at WtE plants is more sophisticated today–with advanced air pollution control technologies–concerns about particulate matter and residue from dioxins, sulfur dioxide, ash, and water pollution are still present.

Most cement kilns or power plants use fossil fuels–usually coal or natural gas–to produce
cement or electricity. Harder-to-recycle plastics and tires, being petroleum-based, are used
instead of fossil fuels. WtE plants are becoming more popular since landfill space is an
increased concern (with excessive quantities of food and yard waste, in addition to plastics),
but also our world’s energy demands.

Today, WtE facilites in the U.S. process over 94,000 tonnes of waste per day and produce clean
energy to power over two million homes. This said, WtE should only occur after efforts to
reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost are exhausted first. Transitioning to a more circular
economy versus linear–which follows a ‘take-make-dispose’ model–will always take
precedence.


By Mary Closser

35 Years of Recycle Utah!

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35 years ago from tomorrow, on August 7, 1990, Recycle Utah’s founders signed the Articles of Incorporation. In honor of Recycle Utah’s 35th birthday, let’s take a look at where we started, how far we’ve come, and what the future holds for us. Recycle Utah’s story began in 1978, when Marianne Cone organized Park City’s first community recycling effort.

Though her small facility closed by 1982, it laid the groundwork for what came next. In 1988, Greg Schirf gathered a group of locals at the Wasatch Brew Pub to address Park City’s growing waste problem. That meeting—with key players like Scott Becker and Sally Elliott—sparked a new push for recycling. Becker led the charge, launching a drop-off site for newspaper, cardboard, glass, plastic, and aluminum in a rundown metal building in what is now the Walgreens parking lot. Recycle Utah incorporated in 1990 and, after a few relocations, settled into its permanent home on Woodbine Way in 1996.

Recycle Utah operates on just 0.4 acres—but in that small space, we recycle over 3.5 million pounds of material each year. With more than 400 cars coming through every day, our staff have to be efficient, knowledgeable, and adaptable. We take in 45 types of materials, many of them not accepted anywhere else locally—everything from cardboard and glass to batteries, skis, sneakers, and electronics. Our leaders, like Insa Riepen and Carolyn Wawra, have always been passionate about doing right by the community and our planet. Recycle Utah’s goal has always been natural resource conservation, saving landfill space, and making sustainability accessible to our community.

As our community continues to grow, so do its needs, and Recycle Utah is committed to growing with it. We’ve come a long way from where we started, today serving thousands of residents and diverting millions of pounds of waste each year. But we’ve reached the limits of what’s possible at our small 0.4-acre facility. To continue meeting the demand for our community’s recycling services, education, and outreach, we need more space. With the same spirit that brought us from a metal shack in a parking lot to where we are today, we look forward to building a facility that can serve Park City and Summit County for decades to come.


By Chelsea Hafer

Recycling the Small Stuff

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We at Recycle Utah often get questions about the small stuff. The caps? Lids? Corks? Small bath products? First, keep in mind that products need to be pure. If it’s made of mixed materials, it’s often not recyclable. Additionally, all materials need to be 90% clean of any residue – food, grease, etc. Lids can stay on plastic bottles and be recycled through curbside service or Recycle Utah.

Though, there’s a good chance the lid will pop off when bailed and may be swept aside into the landfill pile at the Salt Lake City recycling facility. Recycle Utah has designated containers for small plastics, corks, and metal caps to assure recyclability of small items. Metals are important to recycle as they consistently have market value – and recycling metals is less energy intensive than converting the raw material of ore into a new metal.

Try compacting foil pieces, yogurt covers, and more into a tennis ball-sized mass or save them in a sealed metal can. Metal products are often mixed with plastic – consider that the item needs to be at least 70% metal to be recyclable at Recycle Utah.

Now the bathroom, an open door to creative alternatives! First, how can you reduce? If your product is disposable, is there a sustainable and non-plastic replacement, such as washable wipes, glass or metal containers, toothpaste tabs, or bulk buys? Recycle Utah accepts toothbrushes and toothpaste containers, a program with Colgate and Terracycle. To learn more about all the products accepted, recycled, and diverted from the landfill, visit our website at recycleutah.org.

By Mary Closser

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

How Important is Organic?

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Is eating organically grown food actually beneficial? The answer is yes. In most cases, eating organic food is healthier, though not always the most economical. But what does organic really mean? In a farming sense, organically grown means food was not grown using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and was not genetically modified (GMO’s).

While these processes often make farming more efficient and inexpensive, the chemicals and radiation used can have harmful effects on consumers. It’s simply a trade-off between cost and quality when it comes to buying organic for most families in America. Some of the benefits of eating organic include:
● Avoiding the consumption of harmful synthetic pesticides and herbicides found in conventional farming. which can result in short- and long-term health problems.
● Buying organic helps the environment, because food grown with excessive chemical fertilizers and pesticides can pollute the surrounding soil and water, even creating chemical run-off that implicates nearby residents.
● Avoiding greenhouse gas emissions from nitrous oxide, commonly found in conventional fertilizers.

Keep in mind, all conventionally grown foods that are sold in the US are grown with the necessary safety standards. Additionally, equal amounts of micronutrients are generally found in both types of produce.

However, to be extra cautious, it is always a good idea to wash your produce (no matter how it was grown) before you consume it to get rid of dirt and any pesticide residue. Check out the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen on Environmental Working Groups (ewg.org). A few of the ‘dirtier’, more important foods to buy as organic are strawberries, kale and cherries while some of the ‘cleaner’ foods are pineapples, avocados, and onions. If you’re looking to include more organic produce in your diet, now is a great time! The PC Farmer’s Market, every Wednesday at Park City Mountain, includes many local and organic options to choose from.

By Grayson Rae