A new glass recycling program that was the result of a Viewmont High School student’s passion for saving the environment has already shown great promise. Allie Phelps brought the suggestion for a glass recycling bin to the Centerville City Council and after some deliberation they approved it. Now there are bins at Centerville Community Park where residents can drop off their glass. 

“I’ve always been aware of the earth,” said Phelps. “My mom and I would collect the neighborhood glass and take it to a drop off in Salt Lake City. We’d take this little bucket that would fill up fast. I wondered why Centerville didn’t have a glass drop off.”

The Mayor and Public Works Department held a small celebration Dec. 3 and encouraged people to put some glass in the bins.

“We already picked up 620 pounds on Nov. 27,” said Public Works Director, Mike Carlson. “We got more out the next day.”

The bins were put in the first of November, he said. “It took a little bit to catch on but we came up today and one can was full and another can was half full. We’re going to look at adding four more or a metal dumpster.”

Carlson gave some numbers on what has been accomplished since November 2024:

Last month – 620 pounds

The city’s recycling efforts have conserved 0.09 metric tons of CO2. That is the equivalent to conserving the CO2 emissions from any one of the following:

11,858.62 smartphones charged.

0.01 home’s energy use for 1 year.

101.65 pounds of coal burned.

10.51 gallons of gas consumed, 227.39 miles driven.

“Come and check this out,” said Carlson. “It’s amazing. It’s neat to see youth interact with the city. It was a good observation in the community.”

“It was initiated by an involved youth member,” said Mayor Clark Wilkinson. “If you think one person can’t make a difference – it does make a difference.” λ