This month marks the seventh anniversary of the formation of the Green Team of Carbon County. Formed in January of 2009, the organization has grown significantly and brought many improvements to Carbon County in the seven years since its formation.
“Our goal,” explained chairman of the team’s board Jim Piacietelli, “is through a partnership of business, government and citizens, reduce the amount of materials that go into the landfill through collecting and recycling those materials.”
The Green Team Of Carbon County belongs to the Utah Recycling Alliance, Piacietelli said. “We work with recyclers throughout the state to keep informed and encourage recycling locally.”
“We started with nothing,” he continued. “Thanks to Price City, we were able to purchase our first trailer.” It is to one of those ten trailers, soon to be eleven, which members of the community can take their aluminum cans and paper products to be properly disposed of in an environmentally-friendly way. As of right now, the county has a total of 10 placed in different areas, although soon the team will add another to its fleet.
“We’ve grown through the sponsorship of local businesses,” Piacietelli said, describing that a local company may choose to sponsor the purchase of a trailer and may use the trailer as a place to put their company’s name and logo. The trailers have proven to be effective, with last year’s total of collected paper equaling 120 tons.
Besides providing a recycling program for the county, which is made possible through a partnership with JB Recycling, the team also actively educates the rising generation about the need to recycle through school presentations and several diagrams available to teachers to use in the classroom. The team has also sponsored various events such as an E-Waste Day and has also assisted in collecting pharmaceutical drugs that cannot be disposed of in a normal fashion.
Looking to the future, Piacietelli mentioned several projects in which he and the team are looking forward to including securing another trailer for the county as well as to explore composting on a county-wide scale.
“I’ve been in the process this week of talking to local restaurants of allowing people to bring in their used cooking oils and animal fats,” he mentioned further. The oils and fats would then be taken to Bonneville Livestock where it would be recycled and made into usable bio-fuels.
Community members who would like to become involved with the Green Team of Carbon County are encouraged to contact a member for information on any upcoming projects or even attend one of its monthly meetings held the second Thursday of every month in the Price City Hall room 106.
As always, members are encouraged to take any recyclable materials to the trailers provided. To locate a trailer or a different location to take various other items, please visit greenteamcarboncounty.org. For large amounts of materials, the team asks those interested in recycling them to take them to JB Recycling located at 790 South 800 East near Loveless Ash.