An estimated 400 cars cycle through Recycle Utah’s 0.44 acres in Park City every day. Residents can drop off everything from plastics, cardboard, metal, and glass to styrofoam, toothpaste and batteries.
Staff say they’ve outgrown the space and have been trying to find a bigger facility for years.
“Had we simply moved to a larger site, we would probably still be here tonight, having this very exact same conversation,” Recycle Utah board vice chair Heleena Sideris said at the public meeting Jan. 7.
That’s because there’s a bigger problem, a countywide problem: Only 12% of Summit County’s waste gets diverted away from its landfills.
The national average is 32%, according to Recycle Utah staff member Jim Bedell. Peer communities like Vail, Aspen, Jackson and Sun Valley all hover around the national average.
Bedell’s gold standard is Boulder, Colorado, which boasts 52% of its waste is diverted from landfills.
“We're not a 12% organization,” he said Jan. 7. “This is very, very disturbing for us, 12% diversion. It's against everything Recycle Utah stands for, everything we teach and everything we believe in.”
And consultants from Recycling Resource Systems, which Recycle Utah retained with the help of the Park City Community Foundation and Park City Chamber of Commerce, say the nonprofit recycling center is best positioned to be the center of the solution.
They presented two options for Recycle Utah. One is a new 20,000-square-foot building — the size of the center’s current plot of land. Costing up to $20 million, it would add an expansion for compost dropoff and business dropoff.
The other is 30,000 square feet and could handle recycling from residential bins, which currently gets sent to Salt Lake City. It could cost up to $25 million.
Bedell said the recycling center prefers the larger option. Other cities and counties warned if they don’t factor future growth into the plan, they’ll always be playing catch-up.
“In the context of funding we have previously dedicated to very important sustainability initiatives here — open space, transportation initiatives recently — we can afford $25 million,” he said. “Now, unfortunately, Recycle Utah can't afford $25 million.”
And it needs land. According to Bedell, the recycling center has had discussions with the Park City Municipal and Summit County governments about county-owned land near the Home Depot over the years. That’s its preferred location, but it hasn’t sealed the deal.
Plenty of organizations have had their eyes on the more than 90 acres on Old Highway 40. High Valley Transit and Mountain Regional Water Special Service District are building new facilities there, and last year, county councilmembers Chris Robinson and Roger Armstrong toured it with local seniors interested in an assisted living facility.
Recycling center staff toured it a couple years back too, and it says its new home wouldn’t be the only recycling dropoff site. It wants to expand dropoffs in Kamas, Coalville, the Snyderville Basin and Park City, and truck that material to the central facility — a “hub and spoke” model.
So Recycle Utah is using public meetings this month to garner support from taxpayers and politicians to find the center a new home and a place in local government budgets.
Resident Brad Dickson pointed out budgeting for the center now would allow more time to plan for an inevitable landfill expansion in the future.
“There's a value proposition to investing the $25 million today versus doing nothing, because doing nothing is a significant cost to the governments today,” Dickson said.
Summit County’s commercial landfill is in Henefer. Its primary residential landfill is near Rockport, and its first cell is already full. The county may break ground on a second $3 million cell later this year.
Summit County Solid Waste Superintendent Tim Loveday said neither landfill can be expanded forever. Henefer can last until 2057. Rockport has space for five cells which would last until 2053.
That’s why Loveday said diversion is key.
“The bottom line is, with both the political environment and the actual environment in Summit County, I don't think you'll ever see another landfill site in this county,” the county’s top waste official said. “We have too many groundwater issues, too many siting issues that will keep us from doing that.”
Once out of landfill space, it’s unclear where Summit County will have to send its waste.
Wasatch County has to ship its trash nearly 80 miles from Heber to the Bluebench Landfill in Duchesne County.
“There is no reason to hesitate on this,” Bedell said. “I believe our local governments, both staff and elected officials, want to get this done. We just need the catalyst.”
Recycle Utah will host another public meeting at Kimball Junciton’s library Thursday at 6 p.m.
Complete details are available on Recycle Utah’s website.
