The Park City Community Foundation has some healthy plans for its Climate Fund, and it has to do with eliminating food waste from the local landfill by 2023.
Andy Hecht, Park City Foundation’s Climate Fund manager, is currently working on a plan that will utilize a large-scale waste diversion with a focus on high-impact waste reduction and diversion, composting and energy recovery.
Since 2019, Park City Community Foundation’s Climate Fund has invested over $527,000 into local organizations and hosts educational events for the community about climate issues, said Hecht, who has been in his position since February.
“Before I was brought in, we were already looking at waste diversion and how important that is, and last year we asked the experts what we could do to make an impact — and the resounding result and feedback was about food waste,” he said. “It got very specific to food waste, so keeping food waste out of the landfill became our No. 1 goal.”
“The Community Foundation plays an important role in addressing critical challenges in our area which is why we focus on climate and our mountain environment,” said Joel Zarrow, Park City Community Foundation president and chief executive officer, in a statement. “Our Climate Fund will bring together partners, business leaders, nonprofits, and donors to get the entire community on board with zero food waste.”
The initiative aligns with Park City Municipal’s goal of carbon neutrality net zero by 2030, according to Hecht.
“As a resort town, we have an unbelievable amount of food waste, and that goes into the landfill and creates methane,” he said. “Methane, as a greenhouse gas, captures 84% more of the sun’s heat than carbon dioxide.”
The good news is methane is short lived in the atmosphere, said Hecht, who, in his prior Park City Community Foundation capacity, as operations manager, worked with Mountain Town 2030, a nonprofit that works with and empowers outdoor communities to achieve zero-carbon emissions.
“It breaks apart in 10 years, so it gives us hope when we say we’re going to keep food waste out of the landfill by 2023,” he said. “This is by far the biggest impact that we can make locally.”
Hecht is already tossing around ideas of how to move forward with this initiative.
“Our ultimate goal is waste-to-energy — maybe an anaerobic digester — something that will capture the usable methane gas and other byproducts from wasted food,” he said.
In order to do that, Hecht has to come up with a system.
“You need infrastructure and you need facilities to accept the compost,” he said. “You need transportation, and you need point-source diversion. Not to mention education and the changing of habits. So that’s what I’m looking at right now.”
Taking food waste out of the landfill will also benefit landfills, and waste diversion in Summit County can result in a list of positive results, Hecht said.
In addition to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, it would also lessen the impact on surface and groundwater, lower costs of city waste management and bolster local food security and resilience, according to Hecht.
“Landfills are the third-largest contributor to methane in the Northern Hemisphere, and while there are other things like yard waste and other organics in these landfills, yard waste can be treated through big, open-air composting,” he said. “Unfortunately, you can’t do that with compost coming out of restaurants or residences, because it’s not just plants. If all compost had no proteins, there wouldn’t be any problems.”
Another issue facing Park City is the landfill itself, Hecht said.
“It’s filling up, and it’s estimated that (in) between eight to 15 years it will be filled,” he said. “The options after that are not pretty from a financial standpoint.”
Still, Hecht believes the community will embrace the plan when it’s announced.
“Community involvement is the exciting part, and that’s the part I’m working on right now,” he said. “There are a lot of moving parts, and we don’t want to inconvenience anyone. So we are looking at incentives, and I’m very excited to present this road map at the end of the year. This is a truly local solution for a global problem.”