UI Extension and Ada County Landfill partner on new Master Recycler program, educational exhibits

University of Idaho Extension is helping the Ada County Landfill create a Master Recycler program, which will educate community members about the importance of consuming less, reusing materials and recycling waste.

The Extension team has also developed two displays at a new Ada County Landfill Education and Outreach Center, which aims to teach guests how they can minimize their waste stream and be better stewards of the environment. The Extension exhibits focus on curbing kitchen and clothing waste. Landfill user fees will cover costs of running both the Master Recycler program and the Education and Outreach Center, located in the former landfill administration office.

“Our goal is to increase diversion — keeping things out of the landfill — and sharing with people what we do so they understand how we manage waste to protect the environment,” said Rebecca Weeks, education and outreach manager with Ada County Solid Waste Management. “We’re very interested in finding ways to make our landfill last for a very long time, perhaps indefinitely.”

The Master Recycler program will be modeled after Extension’s Master Food Safety Advisor and Idaho Master Gardener programs, which require training and volunteer work over several months for participants to become certified experts, who share what they’ve learned with other community members.

Weeks anticipates the Master Recycler program will span a year, with regular volunteer activities and monthly classes taught by landfill staff, Extension educators, representatives from the city of Boise’s Materials Management team, nonprofit organizations and experts from recycling companies and related businesses. The classes will cover topics such as the dangers of microplastics, backyard composting and how the landfill operates.

“I’m hoping we can develop educational materials to share throughout the state, like Extension does with its programming,” Weeks said.

The county expects class sizes to range from 15 to 30 people and start in the fall of 2026. UI Extension educators Bridget Morrisroe and Sierra Laverty, both of Ada County, received an Innovative Project grant through Extension to help develop the Master Recycler program curriculum.

“You don’t have to go out and buy new,” Morrisroe said. “You can reduce, reuse and recycle. It’s also about choosing things that last longer, to both save money and reduce waste.”

Extension’s displays in the Education and Outreach Center were also funded with Innovative Projects grants.

Lori Wahl, an assistant professor in the Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) specializing in apparel, textiles and design; Chelsey Byrd Lewallen, a senior instructor in FCS; Melissa Hamilton, an Extension educator in Valley County; and Catherine Milner with the city of Boise Curb It program collaborated with Morrisroe on developing the clothing waste workshop.

They also developed a tip sheet with advice on reducing clothing waste and a textile basic repair kit with tools and instruction cards for common repairs. Extension recently presented the tip sheets with repair kits and cards at the REVIVE fashion show in Boise, which highlights sustainability.

The clothing waste display at the Education and Outreach Center — which Morrisroe and Milner assembled — includes a closet overfilled with clothing, taken from second-hand stores and their personal, family and friends’ wardrobes. The display teaches visitors facts about fast fashion. For example, the average U.S. consumer throws away 82 pounds of clothing per year, and every year 92 million tons of textile waste are produced globally.

The kitchen waste exhibit is in the center’s kitchen. In addition to a basic fact sheet, it includes a roll of fabric towels, which can be washed and reused, and cabinets filled with vintage dishes, utensils, reusable bags and storage containers.

The landfill hosted a ribbon-cutting celebration for the new Education and Outreach Center on April 22, 2026, in honor of Earth Day. Weeks has designed the center to be a starting point for tours of the Ada County Landfill, which runs many innovative programs to help the environment, such as producing power and renewable natural gas from methane gas emitted from waste. The landfill is working on a new program to reuse construction materials from the landfill’s Diversion Area.

The Education and Outreach Center was also designed with the principles of reducing, reusing and recycling in mind. The floor in the kitchen was repurposed from the former floor of the old U of I basketball court. A multicolored deck was made with remnants from decking manufactured with recycled materials. The interior also includes recycled carpeting, and tables and chairs were built with materials discarded at the landfill. Weeks plans to invite Idaho Master Gardeners to help with the landscaping at the center.

“It’s a nexus for community organizations to come together to solve waste solutions,” Weeks said.