Recycling gaining ground in Utah

OGDEN — Cities around Utah continue to implement recycling programs, and though most of the state lives along the Wasatch Front, many residents in other parts of the state could see programs come their way.

At the inaugural Northern Utah Recycling Summit held recently at Weber State University, waste managers, recyclers and city, county and health officials learned the recycling movement has caught on in Utah.

Officials from Daggett, Uintah and Wayne counties want to learn how to start recycling programs to bury less waste in their landfills.

Coordinators at the Trans-Jordan and Salt Lake Valley landfills want to figure out how to reach out to more people who have existing recycling programs so recycling happens more efficiently.

And others learned that movements to recycle electronics, construction waste and plastic bottles are under way and that to create sustainability in Utah requires some education for residents and a whole lot of education for others.

The summit was born from the ideas of two people: Chris Brown, president of the WSU Environmental Club, and Sam Schroyer, an environmental scientist with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.

And one conversation during the summit highlighted exactly what Brown and Schroyer hoped they would accomplish.

Ashlee Yoder, recycling coordinator for the Salt Lake Valley Landfill, and Esther Davis, compliance coordinator for the Trans-Jordan Landfill, were leading a discussion about educating the public.

"Twenty percent of people are still asking me if they can recycle steel cans," Davis told the audience of 120.

Steel has long been accepted as a recyclable material.

Davis suggested the need to create an organization with a Web site where people can learn about the basics of what can be recycled — paper, plastics and metals.

Insa Riepen, executive director of Recycle Utah-Park City, piped up from the audience that it should be easy to create a one-stop shop for all Utahns to get up-to-date information about recycling. Riepen's organization, which provides recycling information for Park City, was founded with the vision to create a Recycle Utah in various Utah cities.

"Let's do that," Davis said. "Let's make it work."

"Deal," Riepen said.

"It's a great thing when that happens," Brown said during a lunch break at the summit. "This is what the conference is about."

Brown wanted to see networking, e-mail and phone number exchanges happening. And that's what he got.

Other presentations included future recycling legislation, hazardous household waste recycling, medication disposal and a history of recycling in southern Utah.

Schroyer said so many people are working on recycling from different angles in Utah, and they all needed to be in the same room.

Both men predict the summit becomes an annual event.

"(Recycling) has seen exponential growth in the last decade, and it's not slowing down," Schroyer said. "It's a juggernaut that's not going to change."

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