Davis residents don't know garbage about garbage

LAYTON — If you live anywhere in Morgan or Davis counties, other than Bountiful, your city belongs to a special district that takes all of your garbage and burns half of it to create steam and electricity. It's been doing that since 1984.

It's called the Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District.

If you didn't know that, you're among the 56 percent of 308 people the district surveyed through Dan Jones & Associates.

The district operates like any other special service district and owns the Layton landfill, which is expected to be open for another 14 years. The district also owns what's known as a waste-to-energy facility — an incinerator that burns garbage at 2,000 degrees — and sells the resulting steam to Hill Air Force Base for $3 million a year.

If you didn't know that, you're among 44 percent of residents surveyed. A number of people didn't know the term "waste-to-energy," but when interviewers referred to it as the "burn plant," there was some more recognition.

The $6,800 survey found that 68 percent of people were not even familiar with the district, a striking number for Nathan Rich, the district's CEO and executive director.

It's striking because the survey also found that 68 percent of people had used the landfill in the past two years.

Dianne Meppen, the survey's project manager, told the district's board it needs to help the public understand what it does.

Slightly more than half of those surveyed knew they could bring household hazardous waste or green waste, such as yard and lawn clippings, to the landfill. There is no fee to drop off household hazardous waste, such as paint, used oil, batteries or household chemicals.

"You need to get the message out about the district," Meppen said.

Despite residents' lack of knowledge about the end use of their garbage, 75 percent of people surveyed said they were happy with waste disposal in their communities. And 78 percent were satisfied with how much they pay.

But many residents are willing to pay to have curbside recycling services, as well as regular garbage collection in their cities.

The survey found that 78 percent of residents would like the service, and 82 percent of those who want it would be willing to pay $5 a month.

Those who don't want recycling said it costs too much, doesn't accomplish anything, it's too much of a hassle or it should not be mandatory.

The survey's full report will be complete in about a month.

E-MAIL: jdougherty@desnews.com

Wasatch Integrated Waste survey highlights

56 percent: Don't know they belong to the district.

78 percent: Want curbside recycling.

81 percent: Said curbside green waste pickup would be beneficial.