Another year, another one-of-a-kind 100 Mile Meal. 

But it wasn’t just any year for Recycle Utah, the nonprofit that hosts the annual fundraiser dinner that sources every ingredient from within a 100-mile radius of Park City. This was the year the organization was finally ready to show off its vision for its new facility near U.S. 40.

That vision sees the recycling center embracing its role as a community hub for sustainability rather than just a place to take recyclables. On top of major operational improvements like separate bays for public and commercial drop-off and expanded administrative space, the preliminary design also includes space for classrooms and conference rooms. 

There’s also a kitchen, a cafe and event space, retail, and a “fix-it” space for repairing items rather than recycling them. Executive Director Andy Hecht said that dovetails with a thrift store space, too, which he thinks will be a centerpiece of the new facility. 

“We get a lot of things like air fryers that have a broken knob that’s simple to fix, and just having that fix-it space is really helpful,” he said.

A visual rendering of what the exterior could look like shows a black-and-brown, two-story building lined with windows. The interior renders illustrate natural light filling big public spaces with warmth. These images are not the final design, but they’re a big first step informed by a lot of community response, said the nonprofit’s board chair, Heleena Sideris. 

“It’s incredibly exciting. This has been a focal point, a culmination of the last, I would say, six months of intensive iterations and continual refinement,” she said. ”It brings a really emotional side to it, at least for me personally, because it makes that vision just so much more real.” 

The imagined 27,845-square-foot site would sit on a 4.18-acre parcel neighboring the High Valley Transit Sego Lily Campus near Home Depot in Silver Summit. The site is 8.5 times bigger than the Woodbine Way site, and the facility itself would be 4.5 times bigger. The expansion would allow the center to divert 8,000 tons of waste a year, up from 2,000 currently, with a long-term goal of 16,000 tons annually.

“Not only will we be able to process significantly greater volumes of material, but we’ll also have the opportunity to expand beyond household recyclables and begin serving the commercial community as well,” Sideris said. 

Recycle Utah has been on borrowed time since it started in the ’90s, Hecht said. Pinning down a concrete idea for a new facility is challenging because it requires people to agree on what the organization’s future should look like. 

“There needed to be alignment with the board, with the community, with the government, with Park City and Summit County,” Hecht said. “This vision represents solid partnerships … For 35 years we’ve been a great center for Park City, but now we’re growing into being a great center for all of Summit County.”

The need to grow is partially because of how much the county itself has been growing, he said. That has brought an increase in waste generally. Summit County projects Three Mile Landfill will run out of room by 2053. While the county is working to extend the landfill’s lifespan by 10 years, if it did meet capacity, the county would have to start shipping waste out, which would be expensive for residents. 

Recycle Utah’s plan for its new center would allow the facility to handle the increasing demand and to expand alongside it, future-proofing with capacity for brokering more material and even becoming a transfer facility, Hecht said. 

That flexibility is what Sideris said she loves most about the preliminary design. The new center would be a community space, and it should be able to respond to the community’s needs, she said. The center plans to have Lucky Ones Coffee, a Park City-based business dedicated to hiring and empowering people with disabilities, run the cafe and for Waste Less Solutions, a Utah nonprofit focused on diverting food waste, to run the kitchen. She said she’d like to see more partnerships like that, where organizations raise each other’s missions. 

“At the end of the day, we’re really just here to serve the community,” Sideris said. “We really want to have an open dialogue and maintain the ability to pivot whenever needed.”

Recycle Utah in April negotiated a plan with the city to vacate its current location on 1951 Woodbine Way in March 2027 rather than September as originally planned. At that point, the recycling center will set up a temporary facility, probably at the new location, to ensure there’s no disruption in service.

But it’s not time to fund the new facility just yet. 

First, Recycle Utah has to figure out what it will cost, Sideris said. The board will talk with a general contractor to get a ballpark price tag, at which point they’ll begin raising capital. She’d like to see them break ground as early as next spring.

This year’s 100 Mile Meal supported Recycle Utah’s regular operations and will also help with setting up the temporary facility early next year. 

The 11th annual dinner was a celebration of finally reaching a common vision for the organization’s future. The meal, like every year’s, is a partnership with local farmers, who donate the food, and Vail Resorts, who donates the chefs’ time and energy. Diners then fund the nonprofit with a $300 ticket to enjoy a unique meal, this year featuring 28 local producers, many of whom had staff and owners present.

The night itself was a windy gondola ride away at Red Pine Lodge at Park City Mountain resort. Rain passed just before the night began, giving way to a cool cocktail hour outside, where waiters offered appetizers such as soft-cooked quail eggs with hollandaise and pickled onions courtesy of Pando Culinary Farm in Charleston, Ballerina Farm in Kamas and MadSnacks Produce in Oakley. 

Inside, the first course: a rich vichyssoise of crispy onions and herb oil thanks to 3 Springs Land & Livestock in Oakley, Ballerina Farm, Ioulia Greek Olive Oil Company in Park City and Tagge’s Famous Fruit & Veggie Farms in Perry. Plus, a beef carpaccio salad with spiced watermelon, pickled watermelon rind and a honey vinaigrette, all sourced from Canyon Meadows Ranch in Altamont, Copper Moose Farm and Root Revival, both in Park City, and Tagge’s again.

Chef Greg Hansen came out with the Park City Mountain culinary team to a round of applause. This isn’t an easy meal to make, he admitted, but the farmers had come through despite a tough year: a mild winter, a devastating spring frost and a hot summer that was dry, dry, dry until monsoon season brought sudden floods.

“It’s really, really challenging to work with the same food year after year when we get these many years under our belt, to come up with a new menu,” Hansen said. “This is always very challenging, and the farmers make it easier on us than any other thing.”

This year, the farmers donated a lot of chiles, so the culinary team took a southwestern tack, which worked out well, Hansen said. They’d never tried that particular flavor profile before. 

The family-style entrees were grilled lamb tenderloin from 44 Magnum Farm & Ranch in West Mountain and lavender-mint jus from Summit Community Gardens & EATS, chili-braised short rib with honey jus from Canyon Meadows Ranch, Rustling Aspen Farm in Midway and Slide Ridge in Mendon, and a house-smoked chicken with lovage chimichurri from Rustling Aspen, Argyle Acres in Eden and Moonshadow Farm in Hoytsville. 

Finally, a dessert of Utah scones with honey ice cream and berry compote, care of Ballerina Farm, Slide Ridge and Weeks Berries of Paradise. 

Hecht finished off the entrees with a speech about the new center. He thanked the community for all their feedback. 

“People want a place that’s easier to use. That was pretty simple,” Hecht said. “A place that accepts more materials, a place that teaches, a place that inspires, a place that helps us rethink not only what we throw away, but how we reduce, reuse, repair, recycle and take real responsibility for the world around us.”

The evening over, gondolas ferried diners down the dark mountain. This year’s meal had offered an exclusive first glimpse into Recycle Utah’s future, but the wider public can see the designs, too, at the nonprofit’s next monthly free Green Drinks event, 6-8 p.m. on Sept. 15 at 1951 Woodbine Way. 

For more information on Recycle Utah, visit recycleutah.org.

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Recycle Utah has a special surprise for those who attend its 11th annual 100 Mile Meal and after-party Aug. 22 at Red Pine Lodge.

But maybe you can already guess, said Chelsea Hafer, director of education. The recycling center has for years been working on moving from its current location on 1951 Woodbine Way to a new spot. Hafer said they’re finally ready to spill the bins. Er, beans. 

At the annual meal, which sources food from within a 100-mile radius of Park City, Recycle Utah will show off the first real plans for the future facility in Silver Summit east of U.S. 40. The new site will sit on a 4.18-acre parcel more than 10 times the size of the existing site. 

Recycle Utah originally thought it would have to move by September, but it negotiated with the city in April to remain on Woodbine through March 2027. Then, it’ll pack up, head 5 miles north and set up a temporary facility while the permanent one is built. There won’t be any lapse in recycling service. 

The nonprofit has been cooking up the new design for a while. That process included a community survey with over 600 responses, as well as feedback from other local organizations who could have a place at the new location. 

Though Hafer said Recycle Utah is waiting to share the renderings at 100 Mile Meal, it has talked previously about ambitions of becoming a community hub with space for other nonprofits. That could mean offices, storage space, a commercial kitchen or other amenities local organizations could use. 

“We can add value to the recycling program across the whole county, but we have a chance to do something more,” Executive Director Andy Hecht said in May about the design process. “Our mission at Recycle Utah is to help people live sustainable lives … so, right now, for the new facility, we’re forming visioning groups, and we’re going out and talking to other people working in these sustainability spaces.”

Hafer said it’s been a long process getting here. She sees this year’s 100 Mile Meal as a celebration of the community’s support in getting the project this far. 

“We are really grateful for the participation and the patience from our community,” Hafer said. “We’re really excited to reveal the first plans.” 

Attendees will take the new Sunrise Gondola to Park City Mountain’s Red Pine Lodge. The evening will start with a cocktail hour from 4:30-5:30, then the meal from 5:30-7:30 p.m. 

The 100 Mile Meal itself is, of course, still the main draw. The event is possible through a partnership with local farmers, who donate the food, and Vail Resorts, who donates the chefs time and energy. Then diners fund the nonprofit with a ticket to enjoy a one-of-a-kind meal. Hafer said she is always impressed with what the chefs cook up from the 100-mile limitation.

“It’s basically like ‘Chopped,'” she said. “They have like a certain amount of ingredients that they can use … and they have to make something delicious, and they do every time.”

Recycle Utah will also hold a community event a few weeks after 100 Mile Meal to show off the designs again.

Established in 1991, Recycle Utah accepts everyday recyclables as well as items that are harder to process, like aluminum cans, batteries, cardboard and electronics. The center has diverted about 3 million pounds of materials from landfills, and the center averaged 400 visitors a day and held 48 cleanup days in 2025. 

Tickets for the 100 Mile Meal are available at tinyurl.com/4cvr8pxc. Tickets for just the Recycle Utah Rendezvous are available at tinyurl.com/4xbjsy2d. 

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The Park City Council unanimously agreed to move forward with a land transfer to Recycle Utah on Thursday night, opening the door for the facility’s expansion and transition to a property near U.S. 40.

“We have so much support, but it actually goes beyond support because it’s about collaboration,” said Recycle Utah Executive Director Andy Hecht. “Everyone knows us as the recycling center, but when you come down here to recycle your materials, you quickly realize this is a community hub, and that’s what we’re leaning into.”

Park City Municipal initially told Recycle Utah it would need to vacate its current location on Woodbine Way by September because of an impending city construction project. However, Hecht announced last week that Recycle Utah and the city had negotiated to allow the facility to remain on Woodbine Way until March to help with the transition.

“We were looking at timelines and saying to ourselves, ‘We don’t want to close Recycle Utah for any amount of time because we want continuity,’” Hecht said. “It would be horrible if we had to close our doors for a period of time between the land deal and Woodbine Way’s construction.”

Now, with the land transfer in its final stages, Recycle Utah is in the process of planning for its big move. Hecht said he was particularly grateful for the extension because it gives Recycle Utah time to set up a temporary facility on its new property as the organization works to design and build its permanent space.

“We can add value to the recycling program across the whole county, but we have a chance to do something more,” Hecht said about the design process. “Our mission at Recycle Utah is to help people live sustainable lives … so, right now, for the new facility, we’re forming visioning groups, and we’re going out and talking to other people working in these sustainability spaces.”

Hecht said there’s a possibility Recycle Utah could become a hub for other nonprofits, too, by offering office space, storage space, a commercial kitchen or other amenities that organizations often struggle to find.

“We had this imminent date in September over our heads for a while, so we started moving quickly,” Hecht said. “We have an architectural design board together, and we’ve been working with an architect. Knowing that land was probably going to be ours, we continued to thread the needle forward in all other areas we could, so we’re pretty far along.”

He estimated the team is a little more than halfway through the schematic design process, which will be followed by the organization’s fundraising efforts to cover the capital costs.

“That’s really what we’re focused on right now,” Hecht said, referring to the capital campaign. “That’s the point where we’ll get to share business plans with everyone, and that’s the point where we’ll say, ‘Hey, this is what we think we can do, this is what we need to do it with and this is what we’re after.’”

Hecht said he couldn’t share a specific date regarding the campaign’s start, but he was confident it would launch before the end of the year. He also praised the Park City Council, Summit County Council and community members for their support and continued collaboration in finding a solution.

“For 35 years, Recycle Utah has been in the heart of Park City on this tiny fourth-of-an-acre lot, and we’ve had an amazing impact in this little spot,” Hecht said. “Now, we’re growing. We’re going to have 4 acres to expand our programming, expand our diversion, expand our recycling, expand everything that makes Recycle Utah what it is, and we’re going to be doing it in the heart of Summit County.”

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Did you know that the Park City Library has a “Unique Items” collection made up of a wide variety of items beyond books? It’s part of a shared economy that expands on the traditional concept of libraries lending books. We offer items that can be borrowed, used and returned for other community members to enjoy.

Save money and reduce consumerism by borrowing items for free instead of purchasing something you may only need once or a few times. These items range from technology like GoPros and internet hotspots to tools that can help you plant your garden through our seed library.

To check out a unique item, all you need is your library card. You can check out items for one week at a time. Stop by the Park City Library at 1255 Park Ave. to check out an item yourself.

Browse through some of the “Unique Items” available below and check out the Park City Library website for more:

• Sustainability: Waste audit kit, energy detective kit, solar power banks, Radon detector, portable induction cooktop, gardening tools and indoor air quality monitor.
• Entertainment: Telescope, record player and projector.
• Technology: Converters, green screen kit, GoPros, internet hotspots and Rokus.
• Outdoor recreation: Hiking kits, hiking child carrier, binoculars, outdoor games, bike pump, portable power stations.
• Lifestyle: Sewing machine, Pack ‘N Play, musical instruments, crochet and knitting supplies, stud finder, karaoke machine, tools, video lighting kit, metal detector, bubble machine and board games.

Rylee Broach is the adult services librarian at Park City Library.

Recycle Utah, your community non-profit drop-off recycling center, provides these weekly tips. Visit their website for more information – www.recycleutah.org.

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Recycle Utah is celebrating 35 years of service to the community and is looking ahead to what’s in store for the nonprofit, including an upcoming move to a larger property.

“With more space, we can increase the value of our operations and really grow into a community hub of sustainability and we’re so excited to reach that potential,” Executive Director Andy Hecht said. “The county, the city, everyone came together to make this happen.”

Recycle Utah has outgrown its facility at 1951 Woodbine Way and will be moving to a 4.18-acre parcel east of U.S. 40. An exact date for the move has not yet been set. The new spot was acquired in a deal that transferred Summit County land to Park City.

The nonprofit is holding a fundraiser at an Earth Day celebration on April 22 at Twisted Fern, 1300 Snow Creek Drive, Suite RS. Attendees get appetizers, drinks, access to a silent auction and an update on Recycle Utah’s long-term plans.

The tentative plan is for Recycle Utah to continue its operations in a temporary facility at the new location while a permanent center is designed and built there. 

In addition to recycling, the organization offers environmental education for adults and students, field trips, a Green Business program that lets businesses showcase their environmental actions, and zero-waste forums. The nonprofit also holds community trash cleanups. 

Hecht, who became Recycle Utah’s executive director on Jan. 1, noted operations are funded by community donations, not by taxes. He recently transitioned the organization’s bin sponsorship program to a commercial membership program.  

Under the previous program, businesses donated money to put their names on a bin. Now, they pay an annual user fee based on the amount of commercial materials being processed, Hecht said.

“When someone brings us a cardboard box, some people think that we make money on the cardboard box,” he said. “And in reality, it costs us money because we’re recycling this correctly. We’re making sure it gets to where it needs to go.”

The change will also help businesses meet diversion requirements being implemented by Park City later this year, Hecht said. Recycle Utah can track and report material flows to support compliance, he said.

He added the city benefits because it will get detailed metrics on waste diversion.

Recycle Utah was established in 1991 by a group of citizens who were concerned about the lack of recycling opportunities in the Park City area. Its mission is to engage the community in practicing resource conservation through recycling services, education, outreach and advocacy.

The facility diverted about 3 million pounds of materials from landfills and had 400 visitors a day on average in 2025, according to its impact statistics. Hecht said there were 48 cleanup days last year.

Educating people that what goes in the trash has value and should be viewed as a resource is important, Hecht said. When something is thrown away, it doesn’t go away, he said.

“Away means you’re putting it in a bin and it’s picked up by a truck to go into an incredibly expensive hole in the ground that we all pay for,” Hecht said. “This comes out of our tax dollars.”

He added it is significantly easier to turn an old aluminum can into a new aluminum can “rather than going to Australia, digging up bauxites, melting that down with electrodes and creating aluminum cans from raw materials.”

Recycle Utah accepts everyday recyclables, as well as many hard-to-process items, including aluminum cans, batteries, cardboard, CDs and DVDs, cell phones and other small screened electronics, fluorescent light tubes, glass bottles and containers, metal, paper, plastics, printer cartridges and fluoro ski wax. Many electronics are also accepted, most of them for a fee.

“When you bring your TV or your computer or any e-waste, that is completely being dismantled, and the plastic, the rare earth metals, all the materials in there are being processed correctly and none of it is ending up in the landfill,” Hecht said.

American flags are respectfully retired by local Boy Scout troops, eyeglasses are given to Hope Alliance, food waste is accepted in a partnership with Momentum Recycling and clean, usable bras are sent to The Bra Recyclers, which distributes them to women in need. Recycle Utah sells rain barrels made of repurposed plastic drums and used cables, cords and chargers, among other items.

Visit recycleutah.org/materials-accepted for a list of accepted materials and guidelines on preparing items for donation. All items must be sorted before being dropped off.

A Summit County household hazardous waste collection day is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 25 at Silver King parking lot, 1498 Lowell Ave. Only Summit County residents can recycle materials at this event, and businesses are not allowed to do so. 

“One of our primary goals is to keep toxic chemicals and heavy metals out of our environment,” the Recycle Utah website says. “When toxic materials like mercury, lead, and pesticides end up in the landfill, they leach into the ground and your drinking water.”

Among the materials being accepted are paints, solvents, motor oil, electronic waste, batteries, gasoline, household cleaners, fertilizers, pool and spa chemicals, all mercury-containing items and pharmaceuticals. 

Bicycles in all conditions are also being accepted. They will either be sold to fund the Bicycle Collective’s charitable programs or donated to adults and children who need them. All unusable pieces are recycled.

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Recycle Utah has secured a permanent space for a facility in Summit County thanks to a land transfer agreement between the county government and Park City Municipal.

“We’re really excited that we could find a positive outcome for not just Recycle Utah, but for the people of Summit County,” said Summit County Council Chair Canice Harte. “Recycle Utah is a valuable asset to everybody in the community. It’s not just an opportunity for us to recycle, but there’s an educational component as well, so it was really important to find a good solution for them.”

The Park City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to accept a 4.18-acre parcel east of U.S. 40 from Summit County to be used as the site of Recycle Utah’s future facility. City Councilor Tana Toly said the transfer stemmed from a 2017 agreement between the city and the county, in which the county acquiesced to providing the city with land for a public works facility.

The land transfer this week fulfilled the county’s obligations while also establishing a space for Recycle Utah, which needs to vacate its current location on Woodbine Way by September because of city construction projects and an expiring lease.

“The property was jointly identified by the city, county and Recycle Utah as a viable long-term solution that allows Recycle Utah to continue operating a central drop-off and collections center while remaining a hub for recycling education, outreach and community engagement,” Park City officials said in a press release. “The proposed conveyance is structured as an exchange under existing agreements between the city and county and does not require new funding.”

The nonprofit previously proposed a $25 million, 30,000-square-foot facility to help address waste management across the Wasatch Back. The land transfer between the city and county doesn’t necessarily greenlight a multimillion-dollar development project, but it gives Recycle Utah a tangible piece of property for planning purposes.

City officials said they will enter into negotiations with Recycle Utah soon to iron out the details of the nonprofit’s operations on the land.

Luke Cartin, the environmental sustainability manager for Park City, previously said Summit County only diverts 26% of its residential waste compared to the 32% national average, highlighting the need for the nonprofit’s facilities and education campaigns.

The county quickly expressed an interest in helping Recycle Utah and Park City find a solution last year, with officials citing the importance of diverting recyclable materials from Three Mile Landfill.

The landfill is expected to reach its capacity by 2053 based on current projections, and county staff are currently working on a strategic plan to increase Three Mile Landfill’s lifespan by 10 years. Part of increasing the landfill’s lifespan relies on diverting materials, like recyclables and brown waste from trees, to other facilities to conserve space.

Information on the county’s waste management services is available by visiting summitcountyutah.gov/768/Solid-Waste. Details on Recycle Utah’s services are also available online at recycleutah.org.

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Bitcoin trading has become increasingly popular in the past 10 years. Today, one Bitcoin is worth about $87,000, and the global cryptocurrency industry’s worth is estimated at around $2.6 trillion.

Bitcoin operates as a digitally “mined” currency. Rather than gold being pulled from the Earth and valued based on its rarity, bitcoins are “mined” by servers from blocks (long sequential number chains), which equate to a complex mathematical equation. Bitcoin “miners” are then tasked with solving these block equations in order to earn bitcoins.

Mining one bitcoin consumes approximately 155,000 kWh of energy. Comparatively, the average U.S. household consumes approximately 900 kWh of electricity in one month.

Recent research done on the effects of bitcoin mining on air quality found that 34 Bitcoin mines used about 33% more electricity in a day than the city of Los Angeles. Similar to how AI data centers work, Bitcoin servers require high energy input to run and large amounts of water to cool computers and data centers.

The energy demand from these data centers is so great that it is currently difficult to run them without fossil fuels. The use of renewables is increasing within the industry. However, fossil fuels are still heavily used to supplement energy usage:  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58287-3

Mining for gold can also be a very environmentally taxing endeavor. Pulling gold and other precious metals from the Earth consumes significant amounts of energy in different ways and presents several more ethical concerns, such as fair labor and trade issues.

The gold and cryptocurrency industries are estimated to each produce around 100 million tons of CO2 in a year (based on research done in 2023). However, the gold industry is worth vastly more than cryptocurrency, being valued at around 14 trillion. Additionally, gold is less variable a currency, meaning that in general its value holds steadier than we have seen from cryptocurrency.

When executed sustainably, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies do present positive environmental opportunities as alternatives to precious metal mining. But sustainable mining practices are developing faster than sustainable data and server technologies. Until we can switch to reliable and consistent renewable energy sources for our quickly evolving tech needs, we are faced with a world that is becoming more and more reliant on fossil fuels and uses more energy each passing year.

Bitcoin and AI data centers are at the forefront of discussions on regulations for companies producing large amounts of pollution or consuming large amounts of resources. Ensuring that these companies are held accountable and that resource use is regulated is the most promising path forward for the future of cryptocurrency. 

Recycle Utah, your community non-profit drop-off recycling center, provides these weekly tips. Visit their website for more information — www.recycleutah.org.

Editor’s note: This column was clarified and a typo in average household energy use corrected.

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Recycle Utah, a nonprofit organization committed to reducing waste and improving sustainability efforts in the Park City area since 1991, will cease operations at its Prospector facility in just about a year.

City Hall earlier this year formally notified the nonprofit that its center on Woodbine Way needs to be vacated by Sept. 1, 2026, though Recycle Utah has plans to close two months in advance to clean up the site.

While the nonprofit’s leadership has proposed a new $25 million, 30,000-square-foot facility to help address waste management across the Wasatch Back, Park City and Summit County officials are still unsure what exactly Reycle Utah is asking for — though the discussion has led staff at both levels to take a hard look at the community’s collection system in the short and long term.

Recycle Utah is at a critical juncture between its proposal for a new facility and simultaneously seeking a new home. City and county officials are carefully evaluating the proposal to ensure it balances economic feasibility with the community’s needs.

The Summit County Council met with Recycle Utah General Manager Jim Bedell and board members on Wednesday to discuss a potential partnership, and the Park City Council had a separate waste diversion discussion on Thursday without participation from Recycle Utah. 

Data presented by Luke Cartin, the environmental sustainability manager for Park City, suggests that Summit County diverts only 26% of its residential waste compared to the 32% national average. A survey presented by Recycle Utah in January estimated the overall number for Summit County, when factoring in commercial waste tonnage generated at ski resorts and grocery stores, may be closer to 12%.

City and county staff recognized the need for significant improvements, especially with Recycle Utah’s impending closure and Three Mile Landfill projected to reach capacity by 2053. Yet there is still uncertainty about what is actually feasible between now and next summer, and how much officials are willing to spend since Recycle Utah lacks the funding to construct or develop land on its own.

“We’re not going away. This organization has been around for 34 years,” Bedell said. “The community is not going to let this organization go away.”

Bedell affirmed that Recycle Utah is 100% committed to remaining in the business and has explored alternative locations, including relocating to the Ecker Hill Park and Ride. So far, no viable options have been secured. 

He said they have the machinery, staff and expertise but need a partnership to continue services. Park City doesn’t charge Recycle Utah rent for the land, and City Hall pays $75,000 in utilities, or about 20% of the nonprofit’s budget. 

Park City and Summit County offered to donate a 4-acre lot on the Gillmor parcel near Old Highway 40 to Recycle Utah for a new residential and commercial division facility. The land is dedicated for a public works facility. 

However, Carin said Recycle Utah declined the proposal because the facility would be similar to what already exists. Officials said the site does not appear to be suitable for a large recycling center like what the nonprofit has proposed.

Instead, Recycle Utah has advocated for “Option B,” a larger, more expensive project to address the community’s current — and future — needs.

Although Recycle Utah has a sense of what the plan would entail: a multimillion-dollar 30,000-square-foot central processing facility with remote collection sites in major residential and business areas such as Park City, the Snyderville Basin and Coalville, city and county officials emphasized that there are a lot of unknowns. 

Carin was also critical of “Option B” because it would require multiple state and jurisdictional agreements, including potential partnerships with Wasatch County and Evanston, Wyoming, to work. It also assumes a high residential diversion rate that would generate significant truck traffic six days a week. The facility would not accept food waste, a huge contributor to the landfill, and similar facilities exist in Salt Lake County. 

With 18 months until Recycle Utah has to vacate its center, a subcommittee process is underway to decide the long-term direction. Officials on each side are considering interim solutions, such as satellite collection sites that could be funded by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grant program, as well as creating their own plans to ensure the continuity of services while collaborating with Recycle Utah about the future.

Reducing the amount of waste sent to Three Mile Landfill and diverting recyclables are the “North Star” of the process. Around 82% of items that appear in the landfill are divertable; around 39% is food waste or organic materials; 19% is paper; and 11% is plastic.

Carin emphasized that officials can increase their impact by adopting ordinances that would require businesses to have both trash and recycling accounts, create additional waste diversion programs with specific goals like food waste, improving education or other avenues such as creating a waste district similar to a water reclamation district that can act as a taxing authority.

Summit County and Park City officials expressed support for Recycle Utah.

Park City Councilor Jeremy Rubell said it would be an “absolute travesty” to push Recycle Utah to the side.

However, neither city nor county officials were willing to make a financial commitment until there was a clear funding path or a finalized plan.

County Council Chair Tonja Hanson encouraged Bedell and the nonprofit’s board members to develop a firm plan within the next 30 days so officials can determine their next steps. Hanson and her colleagues also emphasized that even if land and money were awarded this week, Recycle Utah would not be able to plan, build and open a new facility by next year.

“Time is of the essence. We’ve been circling the wagon for a long time,” she said.

Summit County and Park City are set to have a joint meeting later this month. Waste diversion and Recycle Utah is expected to be a topic of conversation.

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An ambitious goal for a 30,000-square-foot processing facility near Old Highway 40 with remote collection sites throughout Summit County could help address waste management challenges in the area — but it’s expected to cost around $25 million.

Summit County diverts just 12% of its waste from the landfill for recycling or composting, far below the 32% national average, according to Recycle Utah. 

The Park City-based recycling center presented a proposal for a greener community based on a strategic study intended to address the county’s landfill situation and low diversion rate, including building a new recycling center. More than 400 cars go through the facility a day.

Heleena Sideris, the vice chair of the Recycle Utah board, said the organization had originally been looking to move to a larger site to expand its existing services. However, the board realized the challenges in Summit County are much bigger, and more complex, than expected.

Summit County Solid Waste Superintendent Tim Loveday explained the increased tonnage in the Park City area due to the tourism economy and short-term rentals. 

The standard resident creates 4.9 pounds per day or 38,450 tons per year. But in Summit County, visitors plus residents create 7.62 pounds of waste per day or 57,000 tons per year. Loveday said that’s an increase of 18,500 tons per year, or a 48% increase in disposal impacts.

That’s why the Summit County Council asked voters to approve the emergency services sales tax, which will be used to offset the costs of tourism on police, fire and solid waste management. 

Diverting waste away from the landfill is key to preserving the limited space and moving toward a more sustainable future. Once the Three Mile Landfill is full, it’s full. He expected that could happen by 2053.

“That’s a finite resource that we need to be able to deal with,” Loveday said.

Summit County could consider building a transfer station or shipping out garbage to another landfill, but both come at a high cost. Instead, Loveday pointed to diversion.

“That’s a big impact on our community, all the more reason we need to divert and all the more reason that Recycle Utah needs to be successful,” he said.

Former Recycle Utah board member Jim Bedell said that’s where the nonprofit comes in. The organization is well-positioned to serve a central role in increasing recycling and food waste collection in Summit County.

Recycle Utah accepts all major recyclables, and ones that would otherwise end up in the landfill. The organization takes aluminum cans, American flags, batteries, cardboard, cellphones, fluorescent light tubes, glass, metal, paper, plastic and more. 

Bedell noted the low diversion rate in Summit County compared to other communities such as Boulder, 52%, and Aspen, 40%. So Recycle Utah commissioned a Recycling Resource Systems study with the help of the Park City Community Foundation and Park City Chamber/Bureau to figure out how the community could do better.

RRS determined how best to support the nonprofit’s goals through strategic investments, and conducted a feasibility study to evaluate Recycle Utah’s needs, identify new collection and processing methods and provide a cost estimate for a new recycling center. 

The study proposed two operating models, the less expensive of which was a 20,000-square-foot building with space for municipal and commercial drop-off that could cost up to $19 million. 

The second, more expensive option would be on about 6 acres and have higher operating costs, but more recycling processes. Bedell said the hub-and-spoke model would be the most cost-effective solution to increasing how much recyclables are collected. 

He suggested the 30,000-square-foot central processing facility be built on the Gillmor Parcel near Home Depot, and said Recycle Utah has been discussing the idea with Summit County and Park City officials. There would also be remote collection sites in major residential and business areas such as Park City, the Snyderville Basin and Coalville.

RRS’ study also found that adding sorting and expanded bailing capabilities at the future Recycle Utah facility would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from collection vehicles, and potentially reduce costs for recycling.

“We know we need to do this, and we need to set up these facilities to serve the whole community. So, how are we going to pay for it? $25 million is not a small amount of money,” Bedell said.

Bedell acknowledged the cost impact on city and county governments to help fund the project, but he emphasized the importance of investing in sustainability and the infrastructure needed to support the Recycle Utah plan.

Community members were asked to sign on to show their support for the project with the hopes of imploring elected officials to prioritize exploring the idea this year.

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A pillar of Recycle Utah’s mission is education, and they’ve worked through partnerships to start at the beginning, education the next generation. 

Their programs for kids in Summit County are offered in and out of the classroom, and they educate over 5,000 elementary students a year, according to the Recycle Utah website. With curriculum designed to align with Utah Core Curriculum Standards, Recycle Utah educators visit classrooms for lessons on basic recycling, natural resources, conservation needs, alternative energy and climate change, to name a few.

Out of the classroom setting, Recycle Utah organizes summer camps and field trips through community partners like Summit Community Gardens and EATS. Camps cover topics like pollution and the benefits of buying local, and field trips include tours of the recycling center and the Three Mile Canyon Landfill. 

But what about for adults who want to keep learning well past their school and summer-camp years? That’s why Recycle Utah started their Green Drinks series, held every two months, six a year. 

“It’s our main adult education program,” said Chelsea Hafer, Recycle Utah’s community outreach manager. “Each Green Drinks, we have a different topic, and we have different speakers.”

The format is actually a national program, she explained, where an international network of people who work in the environmental field meet up at informal sessions in their cities. A simple website lists the locations around the world where these meetings are met and also provides resources for new people to launch a Green Drinks series.

The concept began in 1989 at an England pub when two eco-conscious parties met by happenstance, pushed their tables together and began chatting, according to the Green Drinks website. Edwin Datschefski, one of the pub attendees and an employee at The Environment Council, built a website in 2001 in his spare time, and it has since spread.

“I think the strangest thing about Green Drinks is that the goals are so vague and the benefits hard to quantify — but they are undoubtedly there,” Datschefski writes on the site. “When you have seen people come and make new links and learn and argue and set up new schemes and get new jobs etc, it is a good feeling.” 

He explains the concept he created as biological because it is distributed, viral and adaptive: having no central organization, spread by word-of-mouth and different based on each city. 

Mary Closser, Recycle Utah’s education director, started the Park City “chapter” of Green Drinks in 2021 with its bimonthly, second-Tuesday-of-the-month format.

“Depending on the topic, there will be speakers. Some of them are more like a presentation format, and some of them are more like tabling,” said Hafer.

The ad hoc structure is the beauty of Green Drinks, and one way Recycle Utah organizes theirs is by hosting the events at Summit County Green Businesses.

Recycle Utah initiated the Green Business program in 2016, and the group has since grown to over 30 members. It’s a point system for measuring the eco-conscious practices at a business, Hafer said, with three designated levels achieved through green actions. The action categories are energy, water conservation, materials management, transportation and thriving community and equity. 

This program is now a joint effort of Recycle Utah, Park City Municipal and Summit County Sustainability teams, the Park City Chamber of Commerce and the Park City Community Foundation, Hafer said. They’re also currently in the process of restructuring and relaunching the program.

One of the already-appointed green businesses is Este Pizza Park City, which is where the next Green Drinks event on Tuesday, Sept. 10, will meet. With a focus on waste, speakers include Tim Loveday, Summit County’s landfill manager, Andy Hecht, the Park City Community Foundation climate fund manager, and Wasatch Resource Recovery, Hafer said.

“The landfill filling up, we talk about it every time we teach kids, and I think it’s a really important thing for people to know about because it’s a very big issue in our county,” Hafer said. “So Time Loveday was an obvious pick (for a speaker).” 

The topic of waste will of course discuss the landfill and ways to lessen the loads taken there.

“Thirty percent of the landfill is organic, including cardboard, that could be diverted,” Hafer said. “In Park City there’s a big movement towards diverting food waste as the first choice because I think a lot of people, hopefully, recycle and know the rules about curbside recycling. Food waste is a lot of what is taking up volume in the landfill, that’s why the Community Foundation has their Zero Food Waste goal.”

All these issues, and possible solutions, will be discussed during the Sept. 10 event, held from 5:30-7 p.m. It’s a slight deviation from their usual 6-8 p.m. time in order to accommodate for the presidential debate, Hafer said.

“We’re going to have speakers from 6-6:45 p.m. and then Este is going to air the debate, just so that people can watch it,” she said.

There will be drinks for purchase and light appetizers available.

Park City Mountain will host the next event scheduled for Nov. 12, when topics will include “protect our winters” and “dark skies.” Tickets, which are free, for all Green Drinks events can be reserved on the Recycle Utah website at recycleutah.org/events.

“Most of the people who come come to every single one because it’s always a new topic, and people are always able to learn more. Almost all of the information is incredibly interesting,” Hafer said. “If people have not been, they definitely should come because there’s always something new to learn. I learn something new at every one.”

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