The Park City Community Foundation’s Climate Fund has released its strategic plan to eliminate food waste from the Three Mile Canyon Landfill by 2030. A 2019 study commissioned by Summit County found roughly 80% of the solid waste reaching the local landfill could be diverted and 40% to 60% of it is food. The climate fund says that waste releases methane, a greenhouse gas 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
“We’re trying to keep the landfill from filling up, saving money for the community,” Park City Community Foundation Climate Fund Manager Andy Hecht said. “We’re trying to keep methane out of the environment. We take that food waste, divert it to a processor, and that processor can handle it in different ways, but ultimately, at the end of that process, we have something that can be reused in our society. It’s not filling up, it’s not producing methane, and we’re capturing the energy that it took to make that food in the beginning.”
Eyee Hsu, one of the nonprofit’s board members, said the first step to reduce waste is launching a residential curbside food collection program. “One of our biggest goals this year is to have 1,000 residential homes within the greater Park City area signed up for residential composting,” Hsu said.