ROCK SPRINGS – The Ray Lovato Recycling Center Celebrates 30 years of operation, Wednesday, as the center looks towards a bright future serving Sweetwater County.

Devon Brubaker, president of the recycling center’s board of directors, said the center nearly closed in 2017 after the original group overseeing the center had become defunct. The recycling center was started by Roy Lovato in 1994. Lovato was the director of the Rock Springs Housing Authority and formed both the recycling center and the Rock Springs Residents Council. The center was originally located on Industrial Drive, it first employed people living in housing provided by the housing authority to give them a job and learn job skills. After Lovato’s death, it was named for him and moved to its current location at 100 Sheridan Street. The housing authority and the Residents Council ran the center until 2017.

Brubaker said April Thompson, who currently is the housing supervisor for the city, took over the center and ran it as a volunteer. He said a new board and organization was set up in 2017 to operate the recycling center.

“It was on a path to closure, and so we all worked … to try to preserve this and its longterm future,” Brubaker said. “We’re finally in a really good spot moving forward.”

The center is now a 501c3 nonprofit providing recycling services throughout Sweetwater County. Brubaker said the center has a great relationship with Solid Waste District No. 1. He said the the City of Rock Springs also supports the center through both financial and in-kind aid. He said the center diverts 2 million pounds of waste from the landfill each year, with the center on track to hit that benchmark this year as it has already removed 1.127 million pounds of waste. Brubaker said demand for the center’s services tend to track with how the local economy is going as some years it doesn’t receive as much waste as others. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the center received more recyclables as people stayed home and bought more groceries and consumer goods. That peak ended, but Brubaker says the center still receives large amounts of recycling from contractors and construction companies, as well as local hotels when they switch out mattresses or televisions.

The center accepts corrugated cardboard boxes, magazines, office paper, newspaper, EPS Foam, paperboard, aluminum cans, plastic No. 1 and 2, unsolicited direct mail and phonebooks.