What can you put in your curbside recycling bin, and what can't you put in?
And, are there choices to get rid of stuff, beyond your curbside cans?
It can be a bit confusing, but the Utah Recycling Alliance is helping to educate Utahns and helping to get waste where it needs to go.
That's why Utah Recycling Alliance earned the Zero Waste Hero Award from Smith's Food & Drug and Fox 13.
David Johnston, President of the Board of Directors for Utah Recycling Alliance says, "Landfills take up space and at a certain point the landfills here around the valley are going to fill up."
No one wants to landfills to fill up with things that could be reused or recycled.
That's where Utah Recycling Alliance comes in. "So every little thing you can put in the recycling bin that can be turned into something new, we're saving space in the landfill for things that really cannot be recycled," says Johnston.
Utah Recycling Alliance helps the public recycle in a number of ways, including Pop Up! CHaRMs where they collect hard-to-recycle items like Styrofoam or shredded paper.
They also host Fix-It Clinics where clothes that need stitching, or electronics that need fixing can be repaired instead of thrown away.
Utah Recycling Alliance also hosts Trash Talk Series which help people learn what can and can't be recycled.
Johnston says it's also important to remember that recycling isn't the only way to give something a second life.
"We want to encourage our followers to reduce, we want to encourage people to reuse, we want to encourage people to do things like composting and there's all these things you can consider incorporating before you get to the option of recycling," says Johnston.
You can get more information at utahrecyclingalliance.org and follow them on Facebook @URAZeroWaste and Instagram: @urazerowaste.
