Utah Landfill Reaching Capacity, New Plan Needed to Keep Recyclables Out

A landfill in Utah is running out of room and according to site officials, a large amount of waste brought in could have been diverted.

The Summit County landfill in Park City, Utah is filling up quickly, estimating that it only has two years of left worth of space at this rate of intake. Alternatively, building a new landfill would be around $3 million, a huge cost for the city and there isn’t a lot of space for a new site.

“We're not like a lot of other counties. We don't have another place to go build the landfill,” said Tim Loveday, Summit County Waste Superintendent. “So pretty much what we have, as a resource, is finite. When these landfills are full, it's going to be very difficult for us to site one. So, we'll be in a situation where we have to transfer waste out, which is very expensive.”

Unfortunately, most of what is taking up space in the Summit County landfill is waste that could be diverted or recycled. A study published in 2018 found that 63% of materials sent to the area landfill would have been easily divertible and up to 80% could have gone elsewhere or reused.

Loveday also mentioned that food waste makes up 23% of the landfill’s filling. After that, cardboard takes up nearly 8% of the space on its own.

To combat this, Park City has proposed a waste reduction ordinance that will focus on keeping food waste, green waste, and recyclables out of the landfill. The city’s three-fold plan would focus on waste generators, waste haulers, and special events.

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