The Summit County government is looking for feedback on its waste management services as part of a larger push to update the 2018 Solid Waste Master Plan and increase the lifespan of the Three Mile Landfill by at least 10 years.
Solid Waste Superintendent Tim Loveday said the master plan serves as a guiding document for his department’s operations. The county creates a new plan every 10 years, with incremental updates around the 5-year mark in case of technological advancements or changing agreements with partnering organizations.
But the amendments this year focus on a slightly different aspect of waste management: extending the lifecycle of the Three Mile Landfill.
“We have a cell that we just built, and we’re in the process of getting that permitted, but it’s going to have a usable life of about 17 years,” Loveday said. “Our total buildout for the landfill will get us to 2053, based on our projections of waste coming in, so we have a finite resource there. Once we use that up, by 2053, we have no place to take garbage.”
Loveday said the likelihood of building a new landfill in Summit County is “pretty low from an environmental standpoint,” which means the county would need to start transferring waste to other facilities if Three Mile Landfill becomes unusable. But transporting garbage to surrounding counties would likely double the cost of waste management operations, a situation the county hopes to avoid, according to Loveday.
“What we’re trying to do is extend its life by diverting waste from the landfill,” he said. “We can do that with several processes, like recycling. Curbside recycling diverts quite a bit of waste from the landfill each year. We’re looking at potentially starting a program to collect more recyclables, but also to be able to manage brown waste, which is trees, brush and that type of thing.”
The county sent an initial survey to 626 residents to ask about their waste disposal habits in addition to requesting feedback on how services could be improved to further divert garbage from the landfill. Approximately 381 people, or 60% of those who were sent the survey, responded. Loveday said the key theme in their answers came down to one word: convenience.
“They wanted neighborhood areas to drop off recyclables in addition to the curbside program that we’re running,” Loveday said. “In response to that, we’re looking at, potentially, up to six additional locations to be able to drop off recyclables. We also got a lot of comments on education because people weren’t sure what they could put in their recycling containers.”
Loveday said one of his goals based on the survey feedback is to create a “more understandable” system regarding the county’s waste management programs to better educate both residents and out-of-state visitors, especially those occupying short-term rentals.
There were a few suggestions that Loveday said weren’t realistic when it comes to conserving landfill space, such as increasing the number of drop-off spots for recycling glass. However, he said his department is considering those responses for future waste management improvements anyway, even though they don’t necessarily fix the problem.
“Public input is critical to this plan if we’re going to be successful,” Loveday said. “We don’t want to be a government operation sitting here writing it and dictating it out.”
There will be two opportunities for residents who didn’t participate in the survey to share their thoughts with the solid waste department. County officials will be tabling outside the North Summit and South Summit basketball game scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 6 at North Summit High School.
They will additionally hold an open house in the Snyderville Basin beginning at 6 p.m. on Feb. 10. The open house will be in the conference room of the Mountain Regional Water Special Service District on Paintbrush Road.
Loveday said another survey with proposed solutions will be sent to residents after the open house, and the solid waste department will work on updating and implementing the plan over the next year.
“It’s really important that people recycle,” Loveday added. “I know there have been a lot of rumors that recycling ends up in a landfill, but I can assure you that’s not the case. No recyclables that are collected within our curbside program come to us at the county landfill.”
Information on the county’s waste management services is available by visiting summitcountyutah.gov/768/Solid-Waste. Results from the initial survey have also been published online at flashvote.com/summit-county-ut/surveys/waste-reduction-01-26.