Pub. 3 2020-21 Issue 2

28 Are there plans to increase the number of recycling stations in Utah? In 2020, Utah did build a new $17 million recovery center for waste management. The Eunomia report I mentioned earlier said that other states have increased recycling efforts. Their efforts include creating strong curbside programs and paying people to return beverage containers. We could do the same things here, but one issue we have is that Utah has only used 5% of its landfill area. We have less of an incentive to commit to recycling than places that are running out of landfills. Dumping is not sustainable, but it’s difficult to help people understand the value of recycling since space is not an issue. In some parts of Salt Lake County, the materials that can be recycled are quite restricted. It used to be possible to recycle more things. Is that likely to change again in the near term? I don’t know about that. A lot of it comes down to profitability. Some things are recyclable, but it isn’t profitable, or the cost is significantly more than the revenue. Recycling those items is not feasible right now. However, expanding the recycling program would help with sustainability; the more we can recycle, the longer life we will have out of our landfills. Some good projects are going on that make use of landfills. For example, some landfills have collection systems for methane gas. They can use the methane gas for power generation or whatever else needs to be done. In the section about transit ridership, the report talks about high-density housing. How much of that high- density housing is affordable? I don’t know about the affordability of the housing. Nothing is really affordable right now. As we did our report, we included recommendations, and one of them was that we increase services for a lot of the underserved population. For those with a lower income, we recommended that those populations have fair transit service. A lot of people can save money by riding transit. Having a good transit system helps those who don’t have a car. They can get around quickly without spending the money they would have to spend to buy and maintain a car. Is there anything you would like to say about the report that you haven’t talked about already? This report card is only the second one, and we didn’t get as much attention in 2015 as we are getting now. We have put more effort into outreach and presentations, and we are carrying our message to elected officials. President Biden’s focus on infrastructure has also brought infrastructure to people’s attention, and we have piggybacked on that. We are using the national platform to advocate for adequately investing in our infrastructure. We had five overarching recommendations about how to raise our infrastructure grade. Our focus was on getting the biggest possible bang for the buck. • We suggested a statewide risk assessment framework that would prioritize and program funding for infrastructure categories with the lowest grades (levee flood control and canal projects). • Dam rehabilitation in Utah is an issue right now; rehabilitating the high-risk dams will take 60 years on the current schedule. We want to improve the frequency from 60 years down to 25 years. • Another area is extending the lifecycle costs of water systems by providing statewide guidelines for construction, operation and maintenance. • We talked about recycling, but we also need to update state waste management practices. That means sustainable waste management, circular economy management and reducing the waste stream • Our underserved communities need frequent and reliable access to transit. I want to make one final point: Utah and Georgia got the same grade, a C+. No state earned a higher grade than that. In that sense, despite the need to improve, Utah and Georgia were the best in the nation. 3 President Biden’s focus on infrastructure has also brought infrastructure to people’s attention, and we have piggybacked on that. We are using the national platform to advocate for adequately investing in our infrastructure. continued from page 27