There are few things that bring seven cities together. High school football rivalries? Not a chance. Water rights? Please—people would sooner agree on pineapple on a pizza. But garbage? Garbage is the great unifier. Enter the Trans-Jordan Cities agency, which has now given seven municipalities—Bluffdale, Draper, Herriman, Midvale, Murray, Sandy and West Jordan—joint custody of a gleaming new transfer station in Sandy.

Architects at Galloway, who actually brag about this, designed the place with a clear-span truss system so the tipping floor has no columns. Imagine a cathedral, but for garbage. “The facility is especially beneficial for the member cities on the east side of Salt Lake County, providing them with a closer disposal facility to handle curbside waste,” they note in their project summary. If you’ve been stuck behind a garbage truck lumbering down I-15, this is basically your redemption arc.

For the moment, residents will find the new station at 8813 S. 700 West open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., though Saturdays are mainly for residential use. The rest of the week, it’s a constant ballet of collection trucks unloading their cargo. You can watch, if you’re into that sort of thing, but be aware that staring dreamily at a pile of drywall scraps is frowned upon.

And what if your garbage is… hazardous? Fear not: Salt Lake County’s health department has kindly provided a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Center nearby at 8805 S. 700 West, open the same hours. That’s where you take paints, batteries, or anything that makes a sizzling noise when you look at it funny. Businesses can drop off their hazardous odds and ends, or the microwaved overcooked fish by appointment.

Meanwhile, the mothership itself—the Trans-Jordan Landfill in South Jordan—remains fully operational. Located at 10473 S. Bacchus Hwy. and open Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., it is the beating heart of garbage life, home to mountains of yesterday’s leftovers and a surprisingly robust household hazardous waste program. Draper residents even get vouchers to reduce their disposal fees, because nothing says municipal pride like subsidized dumping.

There is, of course, a rule: your loads must be covered. Salt Lake County makes it very clear—“a driver utilizing a landfill shall ensure that the vehicle’s load is securely covered from the destination of origin until the driver deposits the load at the landfill.” This isn’t just to keep debris from smacking into passing cars, but also to spare you the humiliation of everyone on I-15 learning you still own a floral couch from 1983.

So what does this mean for you? It means you can drive a shorter distance to toss out the mattress your cat has “remodeled.” It means fewer garbage trucks doing cross-county marathons. It means your kids now have a local field trip destination they’ll talk about for minutes. Mostly, it means the valley’s trash continues its dignified journey toward the Bayview Landfill in Juab County, because even garbage needs a final resting place.

Tran-Jordan Landfill accepts approximately 365,000 tons of municipal solid waste annually from its seven member cities. In sum, the new transfer station represents a regional investment by seven cities to reduce travel times, improve efficiency, and extend the life of local landfill resources. For more information about seasonal hour changes, services and guidelines, visit the official site at transjordan.org. 

Residents can now haul their garbage to a more convenient transfer station than the counties west side landfill. (Photo courtesy of Murray City)