Local Resources

Last week, I had the honor of sitting on a panel of professionals from organizations that really move the needle in a positive direction when it comes to waste reduction here in the Salt Lake Valley. We were presenting in front of the current Master Recycler class, which is a great program run by the Waste and Recycling Division, Department of Sustainability, Salt Lake City Corporation. As a panelist, I talked a bit about my history as a post-consumer artifactist artist and my current project of making artwork from other people’s “artifacts” as well as my own for my upcoming exhibit Shared Artifacts at Salt Lake City’s Marmalade Library. The rest of the panel talk about their different organizations’ efforts to reduce waste in Utah.
Here’s are some of the highlights of what I learned:

• Wasatch Resource Recovery is getting a food digester that will change food waste from a number of businesses into usable compost and energy. Did you know that 30% of our landfill is composed of organic waste?  So, it was great to learn that that some of this staggering amount can now be diverted from the landfill.  
• Utah Recycling Alliance, who I have mentioned before, has some great resources and events for those wanting to cut down on waste. Two of my favorites are their CHaRM events which help people figure what to do with their hard to recycle items and their Fix-it Clinics where people can come and learn how to fix their broken items to get more life out of them, particularly small appliances, clothing, and bikes.
• Reuse People of America- Materials Resource- This organization carefully dismantles homes or parts of homes and donates the building materials and appliances for reuse elsewhere, hence diverting them from the landfill, giving the owners a sizable tax write-off, and helping out people with less-resources get affordable building materials for their homes.
• Finally, there was the Restore. This store takes reusable building material donations (some from Reuse People above) and sells them to the public for much less and the money they earn is then used for Habitat for Humanity projects. This is a winning formula for all those who are involved!

It was a truly enlightening experience meeting all these people and learning about these organizations. I definitely feel hopeful for our community with them on the scene!