| |
|
| |
|
| Adopt a Canyon |
 |
|
We've been doing recycle/clean ups in Mill Creek Canyon at the Power Dam since November
of 2003. We remove trash and recycling from the roadway leading up to the canyon, all around
the parking lot area, at the "tea cup", above and below the left-hand waterfall,
and everywhere in-between. Our record is 75 beer bottles from one night's partying. We also
paint out graffiti and rehab social trails. We often see fellow community members cleaning up too! |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| Common Thread |
John, a dedicated off-roader, along with his nephew
Ryan, helped Solutions
big-time during the
2007 Easter Jeep Safari.
Members of Rocky Mountain Extreme pictured here on
Easter morning after
cleaning up Potato Salad Hill with Solutions volunteers. See their website
at www.rockymountainextreme.com.
It took over 8 hours on Easter morning to sort the
350 pounds of cans and bottles
littered during
the previous day at Potato Salad Hill. |
The goal of Common Thread, a project we started in 2005, is to get a variety of groups
working together to help prevent damage to the land during large off-road events. More
than a million people a year visit this area – they are attracted to the stunning natural
beauty and want to experience it for themselves. The problem is that too much damage is
occurring, which ends up harming the land along with all the plants and animals that rely
on it. Our hope, each year, is to get friendly groups of volunteers to remove recycling
and litter from a number of areas, distribute information about the special cryptobiotic
crust found in this region, explain the value of the “Leave no Trace” philosophy and provide
other helpful information.
Early each morning during the 2007 Easter Jeep Safari, we removed all the trash and recycling
from the Potato Salad Hill area, a popular party spot, (which is not one of the official Easter
Jeep Safari Sites). The recycling alone from one day’s activities weighed more than 350 pounds!
We believe that many users across the board don’t want to see illegal off-road use, littering and
other bad behaviors. Together we can work at ending that.
In 2007, we worked side by side with off-road enthusiasts and local volunteers who
share our goals. We are excited about plans for expansion in 2008. For details about
Common Thread recycling efforts during Moab's Jeep Safari, read an article that appeared
in
Four Wheeler Magazine (it's at the bottom of the page) and this
Times Independent newspaper article. |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| Wednesday
Morning Recycling Club |
Carol Hoggard is pictured here at the beginning of the
biggest
sort she’s ever attempted in her life!
After 55 hours of work by
6 Solutions members, all of
these bags were emptied of recycling
and trash, sorted, processed and then sold at market. |
|
The Wednesday Morning Recycle Club started up in September of 2007. That’s when
a few of us got together to help the recycle center staff with a backlog of mixed
recycling that had to be sorted so that it could be processed. We spent about 55
hours getting the items sorted over the course of a couple of weeks. Once we
finished that, we realized that we wanted to meet regularly and help out in any
way possible. Since then we’ve been meeting at 10:30 a.m. each Wednesday. We
return wind-blown cardboard to the cardboard pile, sort recycling, remove weeds,
or undertake any task the center staff needs done. It is so rewarding to see the
difference we’ve made to the center grounds, and the boost all the extra help gives
the staff. We’ve been averaging 6 to 10 people per week. There’s always room for
one more! (Or two more, or three more….). |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| Recycling Directory |
Bags of recyclables ready to be sorted into the
Canyonlands
Community Recycling Center bins. |
|
We invite you to download a copy of the fact-filled recycling directory we
created for the Moab area. It contains information about Solutions, lists
places where you can recycle everything from film canisters to car batteries,
and lists all the items Canyonlands Community Recycling accepts. We’ve
included some interesting facts about recycling and we update the directory
as needed and distribute it around town as funds permit. Click to open the
Recycling Directory (the PDF file opens in a new window). |
| |
|
| |
| |
|
|
| The Glass Project |
Students from Glenwood Springs Middle School
picking up glass. |
The Glass Project predates the formation of the
Solutions by half a year. We are in the process of removing thousands
of bits of broken glass from along the trails and rock ledges on both
sides of Mill Creek in the Powerdam area. We work both with volunteer groups
and alone.
Since November of 2003, we have removed thousands of bits of
glass - but we still have thousands more to go. |
| |
|
| |
|
| Group Clean Ups |
 |
It’s amazing to see how much four or five people
can accomplish when working together to remove recycling and trash from the land.
It makes an incredible difference to the local environment. We have so much fun
removing and redirecting the recycling and trash found along the roads, in the
streams and on trails all around this area. It is enormously rewarding to see
the immediate results of our efforts.
During clean ups, we are treated to
close up views of plant and insect life, can focus on the bird’s song and enjoy
fresh air, great views and gentle winds. We do group clean ups whenever two or
more of us get the urge. Some of us do small daily clean ups while we are out and about. |
| |
|
| |
|
| Friends of the Parkway |
One of the many entrances to the parkway found
throughout the city.
Students from the Moab Charter School gather around
the kiosk on the parkway to see their name
on the Friends of the Parkway sign.
Students from the Moab Charter School show off some
of the items they have collected during their monthly
clean up on the parkway.
|
Working in partnership with the City of Moab,
the Solutions started Friends of the Parkway in August of 2004. The goal of this
project is to get all 5+ miles of this beautiful in-town trail system and its spur
trails adopted by groups that will agree to remove the recycling and trash from small
sections when they are able. We’d like to have overlapping coverage to make things
easier for everybody and keep the parkway clean more often.
We hope to expand the program to include a free lecture series, using the Parkway
for inspiration. Other plans include instructing volunteers about how to be tree
tenders and holding a yearly no waste potluck.
We currently have 12 groups and/or individuals working to keep the parkway’s natural
beauty shining through. The current Friends are: Green Solutions, Litter Losers,
Moab Quaker Meeting, The Solutions, Blue Moon Designs, Stuart Kent of Moab Chevron,
WasteNOT Wendy, Caron - The Trash Goddess, The Litter Bugs (Julia and Theo), Red Rock
Forests, WabiSabi, the Delicate Arch Chapter of the National Honor Society of Grand County High School
and the Moab Charter School.
After a September clean up, the Moab Quaker Meeting group was inspired
to write this poem:
We are the Friends
We’re on the scene
To pick up trash
And keep it clean.
Quakers Erin, Austin and Jessie
We keep it clean and not so messy.
We walked the path that was bicycleable
To pick up litter both non- and re-cyclable.
Now the path is clean and pristine.
The water is clear
and the trees are green.
Moab Friends (Quakers) Youth Group
September 2007
We love to see people inspired to write poetry from doing clean ups!
It’s one of the great benefits of doing this sort of work. Click
www.moabcity.org
to read about Friends of the Parkway. |
| |
|
| |
|
| Ball field Recycling |
 |
Working in partnership with the Recreation
Department of the City of Moab, we implemented recycling at the very active
City ball fields. We placed a recycle bin next to each trashcan throughout
the site and maintain them as needed by removing the trash from the recycle
bins and the recycling from the trash bins. Over time we have noticed
increased correct usage of the recycle bins. The kids get it!
We counted the containers we recycled over the course of one full season to get an
idea of how much we were keeping from the landfill. We recycled over 8,000 containers,
mostly #1 plastic and aluminum! To date, we have recycled approximately 18,000
containers from the City ballpark. |
|
We hope to get kids and parents involved in this project and take field trips
to Canyonlands Community Recycling so participants can watch aluminum cans
or #1 plastic being processed into bales. Hundreds of pounds of material,
once thrown away, are now being directed to the recycle center from the city ball fields! |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
 |
| Recycle System Set Ups |
| Getting a recycling system going in
your home or office can be a challenge. We have lots of experience
creating unique recycling systems. We would be more than happy to
help you set up a system at your home or office. Just give us a call! |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| Large Scale Clean Up Assistance |
|
| When SITLA (State of Utah) School and
Institutional Trust Lands Administration) came to us in May of 2004 and
asked for help doing a clean up of a large illegal dumping ground south
of town, we jumped at the chance. This was our first request from an agency
and was one of the reasons Solutions was founded! In November of that year,
on a beautiful snowy day, we performed a major clean up. We were enormously
surprised when in June of 2005 SITLA honored us during a board meeting in Moab.
They presented us with a beautiful plaque, a thoughtful letter from the Governor,
and a $1,000 grant! |
We used that money to create this website, place ads, perform multiple clean
ups, and more.
We also tackled an area right in town that had been neglected for a long time.
Eight or nine people were living along Pack Creek for several years. Solutions
participants, working alone and in groups, spent over 30 hours removing truckloads
of trash and a couple of hundred pounds of recycling. Before we started the clean
up, the entire area smelled of beer. Now it is fresh and clean, a place where deer
and birds relax. We check the area periodically and work on keeping it clean. |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| Adopt a Highway |
 |
The Solutions offer a variety of
alternatives for “Adopt a Highway” groups who are not currently recycling
items retrieved during clean ups. We will go to your stretch of highway
before your group goes and remove the recycling only, leaving the litter
for your group to pick up. Or, if you want to collect the recycling yourself,
we will sort it and take it to the center for you. We are also happy to
demonstrate a variety of techniques for collecting recycling during these
clean ups for those interested in doing that. We have learned quite a bit
from our multiple years of clean ups and are more than happy to share what
we have learned!
In this project, we have worked with KZMU, Grand County Hospice, Lions Club,
and Canyon Cruisers. |
| |
|
| |
|
| Messages from the Children |
 |
Through a grant from the Canyonlands
Arts Council, the Solutions worked with the children of Grand County on
art pieces that expressed the value of living the “reduce, reuse and recycle”
lifestyle. The inspiration for this project was the children themselves!
Whenever we’ve run into children while doing our clean ups, they teach us
something interesting and impress us with their instant understanding of
the benefits of recycling.
The art that the children create was put on display in various locations
around town in what we call 'art attacks'. We hope we delighted and surprised
the grown ups of Grand County with our unique placements of this artwork. We
used “found” materials and photos of clean ups for the most part.
We were so happy with the results of this project that we intend to make
it an ongoing thing! So keep your eyes open when you are out and about in Moab.
You never know where a little “Message” will be. |
| |
|
| |
|
| Spanish Valley Partners |
|
| Spanish Valley Partners was created
to encourage residents along the Spanish Valley Drive area to work together
to remove trash and recycling from along their property lines. The goal is
to keep the roadway clean on a regular basis while searching for real solutions
to the ongoing litter problem. Spanish Valley Drive is home to several hundred
pounds of trash and recycling at any time. Solutions will provide buckets to
participants for storing the recycling and will help people take the recycling
to the recycling center, if needed. To date, three homeowners are involved in this project. |
| |
|
| |
|
| Volunteer Vacations |
|
| Volunteer Vacations aims
to provide area visitors with casual volunteer opportunities while
they are here on vacation. Working in partnership with the Travel
Council, we offer a variety of options to visitors wishing to help
improve the local environment through clean ups or other earth
friendly projects. Visit the Moab Area Travel Council’s website at
http://discovermoab.com/solutions for more information. |
| |
|
| |
|
| The Dudley Project |
Because all life matters. |
| The Dudley Project aims to improve
the life of dogs, cats, horses, and wildlife in our region through a
variety of methods. We provide shelters and blankets to dogs and cats
that need them. We want to match people who would like to walk dogs
with dogs that need walks. We want to work with, and place in the proper
home, any dog that cannot be placed by the Humane Society. Solutions will
accept old doghouses and other items that can be made into shelters for
this project. |
| |
|
| |
|
| No Waste High School |
Recycle Club members Zephyr, Hayley, Cori, Alyssa,
Liz, Dailey, Ari, along with club sponsor,
Mr. Defrancia, relax after the club finished
getting the school’s recycling ready for
delivery to the recycle center. |
| The No Waste High School project started
in the winter of 2006 and has spread throughout the school like wildfire!
Once, hundreds of containers a week were being thrown away, but now they are
collected in bins located inside the school and on the athletic fields and
tennis courts. The high school Recycle Club meets weekly to sort the bin
contents into outside bins, and break down any cardboard boxes used at the
school. Green Solutions, the commercial recycling hauler, picks up the
recycling and takes it to the recycle center. The club, working in partnership
with the school’s kitchen and the
Youth Garden Project, started composting kitchen waste. The club
hopes to engage the entire school in this project. Some things they are looking
at doing include clean ups on the parkway land bordering the high school,
encouraging students to walk, carpool or bike to school, making artistic
posters promoting recycling, and educating themselves about the effects of
wasting in the USA. The project hopes to foster healthy debate and research
about human-caused impacts to the planet and how to reverse the damaging ones
while promoting the beneficial ones. |
| |
|
| |
|
| Underground Recycling Railroad |
Click here to open a map to the Grand Junction recycle center
(page opens in a new window).
Click here to
open a PDF file containing information about places around the State of Utah where
you can recycle phonebooks, catalogs, and a wide assortment of paper products. |
| We are extremely fortunate to have a recycle center
here in Moab. It is the envy of many western towns. For a variety of reasons, the recycle
center here in Moab does not accept #2 plastic, phone books, cereal box cardboard, or
catalogs. Because we dislike consigning items to the landfill, we started an informal
underground railroad that takes these items to Grand Junction, Colorado or Salt Lake
City, Utah, where there are places that accept these items. If you go to either of these
towns and want to take boxes of catalogs or bags of #2 plastic, please let us know.
Currently we have more people saving items than people going to these cities, so please
let us know if you can take a bag or two or a box or two next time you go to either place.
We are trying to work with the recycle center here to see if the markets will support
their adding these items. Until such time, the underground railroad will keep rolling! |
| |
|
| |
|
DO YOU HAVE A PROJECT IDEA?
LET US KNOW. USE OUR HANDY FEEDBACK FORM! |
| |
|
| Return to top of page |
