Park City's nonprofit recycling drop-off center shut its doors around noon Monday, July 27, after the machine that compresses material into bales broke down mid-shift.

Recycle Utah Executive Director Andy Hecht said the Woodbine Way facility in Bonanza Park simply ran out of room once the baler stopped working.

"Monday is by far our busiest day of the week, and we were looking at the rate of material coming in, the volume of material coming in, and we just did not have the capacity to store any more material until that baler is fixed," Hecht told KPCW.

The baler was manufactured in 1997.

Hecht said it should have been retired years ago and that he has budgeted for a replacement in 2027 that can handle double the workload. Repairs on the current machine are expected to be finished by midday Tuesday, July 28, or Wednesday, July 29, morning at the latest, according to Hecht.

Staff was also getting overloaded at the time of the closure, Hecht said. The facility occupies less than half an acre, leaving little buffer when equipment fails.

New baler, new home

The breakdown underscores a space crunch Recycle Utah has been working to solve. In October 2025, Summit County, Park City, and the nonprofit announced a partnership under which the city relinquished a 4.18-acre parcel in the U.S. 40 corridor so Recycle Utah could build a permanent, larger facility on Lot 4 of the Gillmor Subdivision near Silver Summit.

That site is roughly 10 times the size of the current location, as KPCW reported in April. Recycle Utah hopes to break ground in March 2027, Hecht told KPCW's Local News Hour.

Summit County Council considered fee waivers for the new facility's development at its Wednesday, June 24, meeting, including county development fees and a transportation impact fee. The outcome of that discussion has not been confirmed in public records reviewed for this story.

Hecht plans to unveil the full facility design at the Recycle Utah Rendezvous on Saturday, Aug. 22, at Red Pine Lodge, following the nonprofit's annual 100-Mile Meal dinner.

When you can drop off again

Recycle Utah's normal hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents should expect the center to reopen by Wednesday, July 29, at the latest once the baler repair is complete.