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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Summit County will have five drop-off locations for families to recycle Christmas trees this season.

Starting on Dec. 27, Christmas trees can be recycled in Jeremy Ranch across from Bell’s Quick Stop; Silver Creek near Bell’s Truck Stop; Oakley beside City Hall; Kamas behind the City Building; and Wanship next to the Stockyards.

The drop-off is for trees only, however. No lights, tree stands or any other items should be placed in the drop-off area.

The county has been collecting discarded Christmas trees for over a decade, and it doesn’t just help families declutter after the holidays — it also has environmental benefits.

As Christmas trees decay, they create a lot of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane. When trees are buried in landfills, the decomposition process takes longer because there’s not enough oxygen available. Composting the trees to create woodchips helps cut down on those gases and prevents landfills from filling up too quickly from the difficult-to-compact trees.

According to the Summit County government, the trees are also used as windbreakers to prevent wind and soil erosion.

The drop-off locations will be open through Jan. 13.

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Recycle Utah hosted their 100 Mile Meal fundraising event Saturday evening, August 12, 2017, at a private ranch near Oakley. The event featured games, live music and a five-course meal made with local foods that were sourced from within 100 miles of the recycling center in Park City. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

Link to full gallery here: https://parkrecordphoto.smugmug.com/PHOTOS-100-Mile-Meal/

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