It’s late September and the biannual Hazardous Waste Collection is next Saturday. The Sunrise Rotary Volunteers, Park City Municipal, Summit County and Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation partner with Recycle Utah twice a year to keep poison out of the water table.
They’ll take yard chemicals, paint thinners and expired medicines along with just about any other hazardous waste. It’s double duty for those who want to do a fall clean up because Dumpster Days is also scheduled for next week beginning Thursday. Carolyn Murray has this:
Recycle Utah Executive Director, Carolyn Wawra says if you want to clean out your garage, shed, medicine cabinets…. it can be brought to either the Household Hazardous Waste Day at Canyons Parking Lot or to the RU Center on Woodbine Way in Park City.
“There’ll be two bins outside. One is for yard waste like yard trimmings, things that could compost. The other is for trash that’s not recyclable. Think of it as things too large for your curbside bin. No hazardous waste or mattresses. Convenient for you, you can bring that to Hazardous Waste Day on the 29th also. So, really that is the weekend to get rid of stuff. At that event we’re taking anything hazardous like paints, cleaning chemicals, medicines, electronics. Kind of that stuff that’s under your sink or in your basement that you shouldn’t be throwing away or flushing down the toilet. It’s really important to keep these things out of our water and out of our landfill. We’ll also be taking mattresses for 10 dollars.”
Electronics and batteries are always taken at RU. Some appliances can be recycled but if not, they’ll go in the dumpster. Wawra says bring your stuff and they’ll figure it out.
"Anything from like a printer, an iPad or a cell phone to anything as large as a TV, a flat screen or a big old computer. We do take batteries, all types. Anything from car batteries to the little alkaline, motor oils, old expired fuel so anything that you’re like, I don’t know what to do with this…bring it to that event and we’ll figure out a good spot for it.”
RU’s Education Director, Mary Clausser was recognized with the prestigious Educator of the Year Award.
“So, she was up against about 40 other environmental educators in Utah. Pretty proud of Mary Clausser. She’s one of the two top educators in the state right here in Summit County. So, we are pretty excited about that. She spends the majority of her time in the schools. She educates about 5000 elementary students every year. And then she also runs our adult education programs like the Green Business Program, the Green Drinks Program.”
And, coming up on October 6th is the 9th annual Harvest Festival at High Star Ranch. Wawra says it’s a celebration of all things local.
“We have a lot of local arts and crafts vendors, local food vendors, the famous rotary apple pies, local apples from ReLEAF Utah that I handpicked myself over in Summit County. So, I am excited about being a fun part of that. And then, there’ll be some activities for kids. Kathleen Briley is going to do an activity with kids for art and all the proceeds will go to South Summit Elementary School.”
They have a few more vendor spots available for the festival. If interested, send an email to events@recycleutah.org.
There’s still no word on a new space for the recycling center but Wawra is pleased with the cooperation between Summit County and the RU Board of Directors.
Dumpster Days are next Thursday, Friday and Saturday at recycling center and the Hazardous Waste Collection is NEXT Saturday only from 9 am to 1 pm at the Canyons parking lot .
