COMMUNITY RECYCLE CENTER

Address: 1000 East Sand Flats Road, Moab, Utah 84532 (just past the animal shelter).

Hours of Operations: Monday – Friday: 8AM – 4PM | Saturday: 8AM – 12PM |Sunday: CLOSED

The CRC is closed for most federal holidays and July 25th for Pioneer Day (see the home page for a list of observed holidays).

Acceptable Recyclable Materials

FREE Recycling Drop-off for Loads less than 1 Cubic Yard

As of January 2019, ​the CRC accepts the following source-separated commodities:

PLASTICS

  • #1 Plastic (threaded bottles and jars ONLY!)
    • Please remove lids and rinse
    • NO clamshells NO #3-#7 plastics
  • #2 Natural Plastic (milk jugs that are transparent/see-through)
    • Please remove lids and rinse
    • NO clamshells NO #3-#7 plastics
  • #2 Colored/Rainbow Plastic (detergent containers, solid colored containers)
    • Please remove lids and rinse
    • NO clamshells NO #3-#7 plastics
  • Look for the recycle symbol and plastics code identifier (typically located on the bottom of the container)
  • Plastics #3 through #7 and clamshell containers are NOT currently accepted at the CRC

PAPER/FIBER MATERIALS

  • Newspaper
    • Please remove rubber bands
  • Office Paper (copy, computer, and shredded paper)
    • Please remove spiral binders
  • Mixed Paper (magazines/catalogs, cereal/cracker/soda boxes, paper towel rolls, chipboard, file folders, junk mail, phone books)
    • Please remove rubber bands and spiral binders
  • Cardboard (corrugated)
    • Please break down/flatten & remove all non-corrugated materials
    • NO waxed cardboard or pizza boxes
  • Books (hard or soft bound)
    • Please attempt to provide for reuse first
    • NO catalogs, magazines, telephone directories

METALS

  • Aluminum Cans (will not stick to magnets)
    • Please rinse
    • NO tin foil NO foil trays
  • Tin/Steel Cans (sticks to magnets)
    • Please rinse
    • NO excessive food residue
  • Scrap steel is accepted at the Moab Landfill for free!

GLASS

  • Glass Bottles and Jars
    • Please remove lids and rinse
    • Separate by color (clear, brown, blue/green)
    • NO excessive food residue NO windows NO Plate Glass NO lightbulbs

HARD TO RECYCLE ITEMS

History of the Community Recycle Center

The recycling center was created in 1991 by a non-profit group known as Canyonlands Community Recycling. This wonderful group brought recycling to life in Moab. Their hard work and dedication to the environment has made recycling a household word in Moab. In July of 2010, Canyonlands Community Recycling transferred the management and operation of the CRC to the Solid Waste District so that they could pursue the goal of furthering education and recycling in the community. Canyonlands Community Recycling now functions under the non-profit organization known as the Resiliency Hub.

The Solid Waste District took over the CRC operation in July 2010 and is committed to continuing, promoting, and expanding recycling in Grand County and northern San Juan County. At the Community Recycle Center, the District accepts a variety of recycling products and processes them for shipping to domestic markets/brokers and processing plants, where available. Residents may drop off recyclables for free, whereas commercial entities are charged a fee to offset the recycling costs. Source-separated products are stored in a staging area until enough is accumulated for processing into bales. A pricing and shipping contract is then negotiated. A primary goal of the District is to ensure that the CRC is financially supported as much as possible by the sale of products. When the prices are not favorable, products may be stored on site or the District may make the unfavorable decision to not accept products, such as plastics #3 through #7.

A key District goal is to encourage the saving of resources by increasing the materials diverted from the waste stream: In 2017, the estimated regional recycling rate was over 13 %; however, the overall waste diversion rate for the District reached 23% because of the diversion of clean green waste at the Moab Landfill. The diverted material is chipped into mulch. Some of the material has been diverted into windrows with the first composting effort conducted in 2017 as a learning project. The District does have a permit to conduct composting operations at the Moab Landfill and will make another attempt in 2019. At the present time, the District has unscreened compost as well as mulch available for purchase. Due to personnel shortages and the global economy impacts starting first from China, the recycling rate has decreased as many commodities are no longer accepted for recycling as there are no reasonable markets. Efforts are underway to find recycling markets as well as to encourage REFUSE, REUSE and REPURPOSE philosophies, instead of simply relying on recycling to reduce material into the local landfills.