EVANSTON — Although membership jumped last year after a Uinta County Herald story brought the needs of Uinta Recycling Inc. (URI) into the spotlight, officials said earlier this month that they’re hoping for an even better year ahead.

URI held its annual meeting of board members, contributing members and sponsors on Thursday, Jan. 9, at the Beeman-Cashin Building.

Current board members are President Steve Moscinski, Vice President Jerry Wiggins, Secretary Barb Jefferis, Treasurer Lindsey Gardner, Membership Chair Julie Jett and members at large Charles Butcher, Eric Mander and Jerry Wiggins.

Moscinski welcomed the attendees and gave a brief history of the recycling center since its inception in 2004. Uinta Recycling Inc. was started in October 2004 by a few committed individuals and is a nonprofit organization. Its mission is to preserve the environment through the reuse and recycling of resources as well as the promotion of waste reduction. The organization provides the facilities and also offers public education while creating an effective waste management model.

Moscinski reminded members that the City of Evanston provides the building at 100 China Mary Road and maintenance for URI. He said that in 2008, the city purchased the used cardboard compactor and, in 2018, URI traded back the old truck to the city for a full-size truck that is used for 25 to 30 pickups per week of recycling at the local elementary schools and businesses.

Moscinski said Uinta County provides URI $2,733 monthly for diverting waste from the landfill. As part of the contract, URI also collects and stores electronic waste for the county. In 2019, 436.64 tons of waste was diverted from the landfill, and since 2005, the recycling center has kept more than 6,000 tons of waste out of the landfill.

“Seventy percent of all material dumped at landfills is recyclable. Materials at URI are only 2.5% of municipal solid waste. Uinta County and Wyoming recycle less than 20% of their waste and other states in the U.S. recycle at least 35%,” Moscinski said.

Jett then recognized corporate sponsors, partners, businesses and individual memberships, which she said have increased dramatically in the past year. This increase included annual contributions of nine super business sponsors of $100 plus, 14 bin sponsors, one anonymous donor, 11 businesses at $100 annually, 44 individual members at $20 each annually and 35 family members at $30 annually, for a total of 114 members in 2019, up from 98 in 2018. 

Jefferis recognized the volunteers for the year: Rotary Club works the first and fourth Saturday of the month; Uinta County Democrats and Soroptimists volunteer the second Saturday of the month; PEO (Philanthropic Educational Organization ) the first Saturday, along with other volunteers; and the Western Board of Realtors on the fifth Saturday of the month.

Moscinski gave accolades to Operations Manager Cindy Boyd on the great job she does in researching for who will pay the best price for recycled items. She told him that prices for recyclables are dropping dramatically in 2020. From 2019 to 2020, cardboard went from $35 down to zero; mixed paper $75 down to $40; white paper $135 down to $45; mixed metal $115 down to $60; and glass dropped to zero dollars. Aluminum stays at the current market value.

Moscinski reminded everyone that computer paper has to be black and white only — it cannot even have one red or blue mark on it or it goes into the mixed paper bin. Contamination is a major issue with recyclables and it is important that individuals wash and sort recyclables into separate containers. Single stream (waste that is not separated) is considered contaminated, is not as marketable, is crushed all together and 12% of it goes into a landfill. 

He said Boyd keeps track of the number of visitors to URI. In 2014, there were 20,850, and in 2019, visitations increased to 21,433.

Gardner presented everyone with a printed copy of her annual report. Gardner said that she was pleased to report 2019 had been a good year for URI.

“The success of any company is no doubt a reflection of its community support, its employees and its board members,” Garner said. “We have been very fortunate with people being so generous about giving donations and signing up to be a member and wanting to keep the operation going here at URI. With the newspaper article that was published in the Evanston paper (in June), we have seen memberships and donations skyrocket.”

Gardner continued by noting that even though donations, bin sponsors and memberships had increased, the cost of operating the center has also increased. Shipping cardboard costs $300 for each bin, which is taken to Utah one to two times every two weeks. In 2020, that cost will increase to $318 a load and the payback on recycling cardboard is zero. Gardner said that operating expenses are around $79,000 and income is around $74,000 so she is worried about running out of the “rainy day” fund. The Reconciliation Summary Gardner presented showed a balance of $53,418 on Dec. 31,2019.

Gardner concluded in her written report, “Our main goal here at URI is to keep items out of the landfill and make the environment a cleaner place, while maintaining a low expense level. … Let’s strive for an even better 2020.”

Last on the evening’s agenda was the election for two open positions on the URI board. Charles Butcher opened the nominations. There were no nominations or volunteers for the positions so Moscinski closed the election and asked members to seek out anyone interested in being a board member to contact one of the officers.

Items that are accepted for recycling at URI are corrugated cardboard/paperboard; mixed paper including newspaper, junk mail, magazines, catalogs, phone books; white office paper; aluminum beverage cans; aluminum cat food cans; steel/tin cans and other metals; brown glass; mixed glass; batteries (small alkaline and rechargeable, not car batteries); TV and computer monitors, computer and laptop computers ($10 donation requested for these, members free); cell phones; and printer ink cartridges. They no longer take propane or helium bottles. They do not take plastic or Styrofoam due to limited space, but Walmart and Smith’s do take plastic shopping bags. Empty printer ink cartridges and used cell phones are donated to raise money for Evanston girls’ volleyball. It is important to clean waste before recycling.