Visitors and staff at Grand Teton National Park now have more ways to recycle – and an easy way to reduce litter, thanks to a collaboration between nonprofit Keep America Beautiful®, sustainability solutions innovator TerraCycle®, and hospitality provider Grand Teton Lodge Company®. With a grant from the National Park Foundation, the group is introducing new recycling infrastructure at the park to make waste disposal simpler, smarter and more accessible.
The centerpiece is a newly installed 20 foot recycling station at the busy Colter Bay Campground, which welcomes up to 4,000 overnight guests a night during peak season. This bear-resistant structure features 12 clearly marked slots and easy-to-read signage, making it simple for campers to sort traditional recyclables like aluminum cans, glass bottles, and cardboard – materials that will be recycled through Grand Teton National Park’s municipal recycling service. It also includes designated spaces for hard-to-recycle items such as snack and candy wrappers, rigid plastic, and flexible plastic packaging, which will be collected and recycled by TerraCycle through its specialized recycling solutions.
The upgrades don’t stop there. Anglers will now find three dedicated bins near fishing access points to safely dispose of used fishing line – a small change that helps protect the park’s waterways and wildlife. And 30 new cigarette butt recycling receptacles have been added to help tackle one of the park’s most common sources of litter.
“This collaboration with Grand Teton National Park, Grand Teton Lodge Company, and Keep America Beautiful brings real-world recycling solutions to one of the most iconic natural settings in the U.S.,” said Tom Szaky, founder and chief executive officer of TerraCycle. “Together, with the support of the National Park Foundation, we’re demonstrating how well-designed infrastructure can make recycling more intuitive and accessible – even in remote, natural settings like Grand Teton.”
Published July 2025