Teton County set out on the 鈥淩oad to Zero Waste鈥� in 1990 when three women 鈥� Sandy Shuptrine, Ellen Fales and Karen Jerger 鈥� started collecting aluminum cans and newspaper in a Quonset hut on Gregory Lane. Thirty-five years on, more than a third of waste gets recycled, a figure that鈥檚 a little higher than the national average.
鈥淔or the last five years, Teton County has averaged 50,000 tons of waste,鈥� said Becky Kiefer, superintendent of Teton County Integrated Solid Waste and Recycling. 鈥淥n average, about 35,000 tons is landfilled鈥� 鈥� we pay to truck it 100 miles to Idaho 鈥� 鈥渢herefore, about 15,000 tons are diverted through our various programs.鈥�
Shuptrine, Fales and Jerger鈥檚 efforts outgrew the original space, and in 1995 the nonprofit Jackson Hole Recycling moved into its current facility at Adams Canyon. In 2009, the town and county voted to absorb the program into the municipal solid waste operation, resulting in today鈥檚 integrated division.