Recycling non-profit success shows people want to recycle, they just need a good way to do it
Nov 11, 2025, 1:42 PM
A recycling non-profit's success is showing people like to recycle, they just don't know where to go. (Canva)
(Canva)
SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake based recycling non-profit has been growing year after year proving people want to recycle, they just need to know where to go.
Utah Recycling Alliance has been around for about eight years. It has six different programs all around recycling, and one of them is the CHaRM event. CHaRM is an acronym that stands for Collection of Hard to Recycle Material.
CHaRM program director Robi Overson said the program has seen more and more success every year.
“In 2023, we had only collected about 3,500 pounds of material,” Overson said. “And then we increased it in 2024 to 22,000 pounds of material that we collected. And so far for 2025, we have collected over 35,000 pounds of material.”
That is a 55% increase from last year.
The event is held several times a year, and the program will accept anything from a mattress and bicycle, to computers and batteries. Things that can be recycled, but have to be taken to a specific recycling location, making it hard for the average person to recycle.
“Part of the problem is that they just don’t know,” Overson said. “They’re really busy, right? We basically collect 13 different types of material. They’re not going to go around to 13 different places to drop off that material. But if they can come to one place, they’re going to do it.”
Overson said people generally want to do the right thing and view recycling as one of those things. In addition to not knowing where to go, there can be an issue of trust where people just don’t know if what they are recycling is even being used.
“If we can check all those boxes and say, here’s who we are, here’s what we’re doing, here’s when it is, here’s what we’re collecting, here are the recyclers, here’s where it’s going, and we can check all those boxes, more people are willing to say, ‘Yes, you know what, this is something I wanna participate in. I want to be able to contribute to this,'” Overson explained.
Right now the program mainly operates in Salt Lake areas. It started with four events a year, but now its gone up to six. Next year, Overson said they would like to hold nine events.
“We collected over 7,300 pounds in one event in Millcreek, which was just a few weeks ago. That’s one of our most successful events, and that was the first time we ever did that event,” Overson said. “People want this.”
The last event for this year will be at the Woodrow Parking Lot on Saturday in Murray, across the street form the Intermountain Medical Center at 5300 S 100 W from 9 a.m. to noon.
Other stories related to recycling:
Utah recycling is improving, according to Waste Management
