Another year, another one-of-a-kind 100 Mile Meal.  But it wasn’t just any year for Recycle Utah, the nonprofit that hosts the annual fundraiser dinner that sources every ingredient from within a 100-mile radius of Park City. This was the year the organization was finally ready to show off it s vision for its new facility near U.S. 40. That vision sees the recycling center embracing its role as a community hub rather than just a place to take recyclables. On top of major operational improvements like separate bays for public and commercial drop-off and expanded administrative space, the preliminary design also includes space for classrooms and conference rooms.  There’s also a kitchen, a cafe and event space, retail, and a “fix-it” space for repairing items rather than recycling them. Executive Director Andy Hecht said that dovetails with a thrift store space, too, which he thinks will be a centerpiece of the new facility.  “We get a lot of things like air fryers that have a broken knob that’s simple to fix, and just having that fix-it space is really helpful,” he said. A visual rendering of what the exterior could look like shows a black-and-brown, two-story building lined with windows. The interior renders illustrate natural light filling big public spaces with warmth. These images are not the final design, but they’re a big first step informed by a lot of community response, said the nonprofit’s board chair, Heleena Sideris.  “It’s incredibly exciting. This has been a focal point, a culmination of the last, I would say, six months of intensive iterations and continual refinement,” she said. ”It brings a really emotional side to it, at least for me personally, because it makes that vision just so much more real.”  The imagined 27,845-square-foot site would sit on a 4.18-acre parcel neighboring the High Valley Transit Sego Lily Campus near Home Depot in Silver Summit. The site is 8.5 times bigger than the Woodbine Way site, and the facility itself would be 4.5 times bigger. The expansion would allow the center to divert 8,000 tons of waste a year, up from 2,000 currently, with a long-term goal of 16,000 tons annually. “Not only will we be able to process significantly greater volumes of material, but we’ll also have the opportunity to expand beyond household recyclables and begin serving the commercial community as well,” Sideris said.  Recycle Utah has been on borrowed time since it started in the ’90s, Hecht said. Pinning down a concrete idea for a new facility is challenging because it requires people to agree on what the organization’s future should look like.  “There needed to be alignment with the board, with the community, with the government, with Park City and Summit County,” Hecht said. “This vision represents solid partnerships … For 35 years we’ve been a great center for Park City, but now we’re growing into being a great center for all of Summit County.” The need to grow is partially because of how much the county itself has been growing, he said. That has brought an increase in waste generally. Summit County projects Three Mile Landfill will run out of room by 2053. While the county is working to extend the landfill’s lifespan by 10 years, if it did meet capacity, the county would have to start shipping waste out, which would be expensive for residents.  Recycle Utah’s plan for its new center would allow the facility to handle the increasing demand and to expand alongside it, future-proofing with capacity for brokering more material and even becoming a transfer facility, Hecht said.  That flexibility is what Sideris said she loves most about the preliminary design. The new center would be a community space, and it should be able to respond to the community’s needs, she said. The center plans to have Lucky Ones Coffee, a Park City-based business dedicated to hiring and empowering people with disabilities, run the cafe and for Waste Less Solutions, a Utah nonprofit focused on diverting food waste, to run the kitchen. She said she’d like to see more partnerships like that, where organizations raise each other’s missions.  “At the end of the day, we’re really just here to serve the community,” Sideris said. “We really want to have an open dialogue and maintain the ability to pivot whenever needed.” Recycle Utah in April negotiated a plan with the city to vacate its current location on 1951 Woodbine Way in March 2027 rather than September as originally planned. At that point, the recycling center will set up a temporary facility, probably at the new location, to ensure there’s no disruption in service. It’s not time to fund a new facility yet.  First, Recycle Utah has to figure out what it will cost, Sideris said. Then, the board will talk with a general contractor to get a ballpark price tag, at which point they’ll begin raising capital. She’d like to see them break ground as early as next spring. This year’s 100 Mile Meal supported Recycle Utah’s regular operations and will also help with setting up the temporary facility early next year.  The 11th annual dinner was a celebration of finally reaching a common vision for the organization’s future. The meal, like every year’s, is a partnership with local farmers, who donate the food, and Vail Resorts, who donates the chefs’ time and energy. Diners then fund the nonprofit with a $300 ticket to enjoy a unique meal, this year featuring 28 local producers, many of whom had staff and owners present. The night itself was a windy gondola ride away at Red Pine Lodge at Park City Mountain resort. Rain passed just before the night began, giving way to a cool cocktail hour outside, where waiters offered appetizers such as soft-cooked quail eggs with hollandaise and pickled onions courtesy of Pando Culinary Farm in Charleston, Ballerina Farm in Kamas and MadSnacks Produce in Oakley.  The first course was a vichyssoise of crispy onions and herb oil, as well as a beef carpaccio salad with spiced watermelon, pickled watermelon rind and a honey vinaigrette. All the food came from Utah farmers. Inside, the first course: a rich vichyssoise of crispy onions and herb oil thanks to 3 Springs Land Livestock in Oakley, Ballerina Farm, Ioulia Greek Olive Oil Company in Park City and Tagge’s Famous Fruit Veggie Farms in Perry. Plus, a beef carpaccio salad with spiced watermelon, pickled watermelon rind and a honey vinaigrette, all sourced from Canyon Meadows Ranch in Altamont, Copper Moose Farm and Root Revival, both in Park City, and Tagge’s again. Chef Greg Hansen came out with the Park City Mountain culinary team to a round of applause. This isn’t an easy meal to make, he admitted, but the farmers had come through despite a tough year: a mild winter, a devastating spring frost and a hot summer that was dry, dry, dry until monsoon season brought sudden floods. “It’s really, really challenging to work with the same food year after year when we get these many years under our belt, to come up with a new menu,” Hansen said. “This is always very challenging, and the farmers make it easier on us than any other thing.” This year, the farmers donated a lot of chiles, so the culinary team took a southwestern tack, which worked out well, Hansen said. They’d never tried that particular flavor profile before.  One entree of the night was a house-smoked chicken with lovage chimichurri from Rustling Aspen, Argyle Acres in Eden and Moonshadow Farm in Hoytsville, with and potato latkes from 3 Springs Land Livestock and street corn from Tagge’s Famous Fruit Veggie Farms. The family-style entrees were grilled lamb tenderloin from 44 Magnum Farm Ranch in West Mountain and lavender-mint jus from Summit Community Gardens EATS, chili-braised short rib with honey jus from Canyon Meadows Ranch, Rustling Aspen Farm in Midway and Slide Ridge in Mendon, and a house-smoked chicken with lovage chimichurri from Rustling Aspen, Argyle Acres in Eden and Moonshadow Farm in Hoytsville.  Finally, a dessert of Utah scones with honey ice cream and berry compote, care of Ballerina Farm, Slide Ridge and Weeks Berries of Paradise.  Hecht finished off the entrees with a speech about the new center. He thanked the community for all their feedback.  Vice chair for Recycle Utah’s board of directors Rebecca Blanchette ends the night thanking Recycle Utah staff, volunteers and patrons. “People want a place that’s easier to use. That was pretty simple,” Hecht said. “A place that accepts more materials, a place that teaches, a place that inspires, a place that helps us rethink not only what we throw away, but how we reduce, reuse, repair, recycle and take real responsibility for the world around us.” The evening over, gondolas ferried diners down the dark mountain. This year’s meal had offered an exclusive first glimpse into Recycle Utah’s future, but the wider public can see the designs, too, at the nonprofit’s next monthly free Green Drinks event, 6-8 p.m. on Sept. 15 at 1951 Woodbine Way.  For more information on Recycle Utah, visit recycleutah.org. A couple takes a stroll around Red Pine Lodge after the 100 Mile Meal on Aug. 22. 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