Cooking brings flavor—but also hidden air pollution. Whether you use gas or electric, how you cook impacts the air your family breathes. Even brief cooking sessions can spread pollutants throughout your home (not just the kitchen). But simple changes can greatly enhance your indoor air quality!
Continue reading
The New American Goat Club was a 2023, 2024, and 2025 community organization recipient. Photo credit: Ashley Detrick
– – – – –
June 26, 2025
Para leer este comunicado de prensa en español, oprima aqui
Salt Lake City continues to increase residents’ access to fresh, healthy, affordable, and culturally relevant food by funding 12 community food projects through the Sustainability Department’s 2025 SLC Food Microgrant program.
This year, over $56,500 in funding was granted to community-led projects aligned with recommendations from the City’s Resident Food Equity Advisors Program.
“We often talk about building a more resilient Salt Lake City, and this is one way we’re doing it—by supporting neighbors and community groups who grow food, share knowledge, and improve access to locally sourced, culturally meaningful foods,” said Mayor Mendenhall. “These microgrants are small investments with big returns for our health, our environment, and our connection to one another.”
Continue readingBy SLCgreen Intern Kate Kuwahara
Photo credit: Downtown SLC Farmers Market
The holiday season is upon us! This can be a time to gather with loved ones and enjoy some great food, often bringing recipes we only enjoy once or twice a year. Holidays can also be a great place to start when rethinking long-held traditions, habits, and how our actions can impact our community. Food waste is a major issue in the U.S. even outside of the holiday season. About 40% of all food produced in the U.S. never gets eaten, and this amount increases by an additional 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s!
However you celebrate, we encourage sustainable habits around gathering for the holidays, from food waste to decorations. And what better place to start than buying local food! Salt Lake City’s Winter Farmers’ Market returns on Saturdays beginning November 9th and will operate weekly from 10AM to 2PM through April 19th (closed November 30th and March 15th). SLCgreen’s summer intern Kate Kuwahara visited the Downtown Summer Farmers’ Market for the first time and shares her new perspective on farmer’s markets and learning more about our food systems.
Continue reading
Transportation is an important and necessary component of our day-to-day, but in the face of worsening air quality and the sustained effects of climate change, it’s a component we have to be increasingly conscious of. The question is no longer just about where we’re headed or when we get there, but how we choose to do so.
Clean Air SLC is an initiative that aims to distribute equipment and information to help Salt Lake City Residents improve air quality in their communities and inside their homes. We ran a small pilot E-bike Incentive Program in July of 2024 and we were able to fund 277 applications, equally dispersed across the seven City Council districts. Why did we focus on e-bikes? E-bike incentive programs work to help people switch away from gas-powered vehicles for their short-distance commute, such as running errands, meeting up with friends at a local coffee shop or bar, or even commuting to work if that’s an option.
Small but mighty, those short-distance commutes add up! A study conducted by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that over half of vehicle trips in the United States were three miles or less, while 60 percent of all vehicle trips were less than six miles. This represents a lot of potential to mitigate emissions plus health benefits and savings on car ownership and fuel costs.
Continue readingBy SLCgreen Intern Kailee Sendle
Salt Lake City is renowned for its recreation opportunities. With the Wasatch mountains right in our backyard, it is no surprise that many Salt Lakers, including myself, have an intense passion for outdoor recreation. Often those who love the outdoors already do their part in protecting it, like recycling and limiting single-use plastics, but when it comes to how we recreate, making sustainable choices may seem a bit more daunting. Check out these tips for making your outdoor adventures more sustainable.
Continue reading
Recycling can be confusing. So, last week we had an informal Waste & Recycling Q&A on Instagram. We got some great questions and wanted to share them here on the blog!
Continue readingBy SLCgreen Staff Jude Westwood
Two weeks ago, I flew from Salt Lake City to Columbus, Ohio, to visit my family. I left during the peak of our first wintertime inversion; smog settled so thickly in the valley that I hadn’t been able to see the Wasatch Range in several days. The inversion was top of mind as I nursed a sore throat, feeling envious of my Midwestern family and friends who can take good air quality for granted.
As I sat down for breakfast at my brother’s house on my first morning in Columbus, my 11-year-old nephew focused in on the “I ❤ Clean Air” sticker on my Nalgene.
“Isn’t that kind of obvious?” he asked, eyes squinted with skepticism.
“You would think,” I said, grimacing. I took a moment to think of how to explain to him, and glancing around at our breakfast dishes, I had an idea.
Continue readingBy SLCgreen Intern Iris Tang
The holiday season is upon us, and Thanksgiving is already around the corner. This can be a time to gather with loved ones and enjoy some great food, often bringing recipes we only enjoy once or twice a year. Annual traditions can also bring them long-held habits that can bring about excess food and plastic waste.
Food waste is a major issue even outside of the holiday season—about 40% of all food produced in the US never gets eaten. This amount increases by an additional 25% between Thanksgiving and New Years!
Reducing food waste is an often-overlooked way to reduce the impact of potent methane emissions on the planet and to help others, but our food choices are important. In Utah, food choices contribute about 25% of the household carbon footprint. This is a result of the growing, harvesting, transportation, packaging, and cooking processes involved with getting our food to our tables.
But holidays can be a great place to start when rethinking long-held traditions and habits and how our actions can impact our community. So no matter how you celebrate, we at SLCgreen want to encourage sustainable habits around gathering for the holidays, from food waste to decorations. With Thanksgiving being such a food-focused holiday, here are some tips to make the most of your meals and waste less food.
Continue readingBy SLCgreen Intern Iris Tang
With fall in full swing, we wanted to share some seasonal reminders as we head into November.
Leaves and Other Yard Waste
Did you know a lot of your fall waste can be composted? Leaves, dead branches, clippings, and other green waste are all compostable! Composting where you can is a great way to divert waste from the landfill and lower emissions. Salt Lake City’s brown bins are for compost and their contents are processed at our city’s own compost facility. The facility processes the waste and recycles it into woodchips and compost, which are then available for purchase at the Salt Lake Valley Landfill. If you have questions on whether something is compostable, visit this link.
If you find that your brown bins are filling up, you can request additional temporary bins (at no additional cost) here or by calling 801-535-6999.
Continue reading
Recycling can be confusing. Whew—we know. Have you ever thought it could be explained in a more engaging way?
We’re excited to share with you a special comic on recycling from one of our SLCgreen alums.
Max Barnewitz worked as SLCgreen’s Community Outreach Coordinator for several years before going on to earn their MFA in Comics at the California College of the Arts in 2023. In a recent project, Max found a through line between those two worlds, creating a comic explaining recycling in a fun, approachable way. (After all, who doesn’t want to hear about trash from a cute cartoon trash-panda?)
Continue reading