LAYTON—After three years of planning, the new Davis Landfill and the Davis Material Recovery and Transfer Facility (MRF) began operations in June 2020. Located at the former site of the Davis Energy Recovery Facility that closed after 30 years in 2017, the $25 million project is focused on recovering valuable materials, recycling, and reusing non-recyclable plastics by creating engineered fuel. 

Wasatch Integrated has a 19-member administrative control board which includes three county commissioners and one representative from the 15 cities in the district, which includes Morgan County. Wasatch Integrated is considered a special service district, operating as a stand-alone entity, funded entirely through user fees and its different operations. 

Operations at Wasatch Integrated consist of the Davis Landfill; the foundation of the solid waste management system, Green Waste Recycling, the Material Recovery and Transfer Facility (MRF), Household Hazardous Waste and The Thrift Store. 

“We are always talking about ways to divert waste away from a landfill, and we have a lot of programs to do better things with our waste than a landfill, but there is a lot of non-recyclable material and you need a well-run landfill to back stop your systems,” said Nathan Rich, Executive Director for Wasatch Integrated. 

Recycling is also done at the landfill, from metals to refrigerators. In addition, there is no charge to drop off household hazardous waste items to ensure they do not end up in the landfill. Reusable products, like paints or stains are put into the Reuse Shed where people are free to take items they need at no cost. This provides added value to the community by avoiding costs to disposable of it and the products are being used in a way that is not damaging the environment. 

“We also have a fantastic green waste composting program,” Rich said. “We turn 20,000 or so tons per year of yard waste, and we up cycle it into usable compost and wood chip products. 

We also pull usable items out of the waste and sell them in our thrift store. We respect the fact that waste has some reusable resources and we try and recover those resources.”

The Material Recovery and Transfer Facility (MRF) provides a means to take pressure off of the landfill. This high-tech mechanized system allows Wasatch Integrated one more opportunity to recover valuable materials that can be recycled for sale to market. 

Part of their mission is educating the community on waste management principles, so partnering with teachers in the community was an obvious step. School age children can tour the facility, now virtually, as part of their curriculum. 

In another unique partnership with Hill Air Force Base, Wasatch Integrated collects the gas from the organic food and green waste through anaerobic digestion, cleans it up, compresses it and then sends it to the Base where they generate 2.5 megawatts of renewable electricity, all from that landfill gas.