Wasatch Integrated wins national award for compost social media series

Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District earned SWANA’s 2026 Outstanding Social Media Campaign Award for its “Is This Compostable?” video series, produced with Saltworks Digital. The recognition puts the Layton-based district in the national spotlight for using social media to answer a basic waste question with hands-on compost testing and humor.

Why it matters: - The award recognizes a public-sector campaign that turned a routine utility topic into content designed to inform residents and drive engagement. - Wasatch Integrated was the only Utah organization among this year’s SWANA award recipients. - The series also shows how local agencies can use social media to make composting guidance more practical and easier to share.

What happened: - Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District received SWANA’s 2026 Outstanding Social Media Campaign Award for its “Is This Compostable?” video series. - Saltworks Digital, a Salt Lake City marketing agency, produced the series with the district. - SWANA announced the winners in August and presented the award Sept. 30 at its Awards Celebration during RCon 2026 in St. Louis. - The award came from SWANA’s Communication, Education & Marketing Technical Division. - Lee also represented the district on the RCon 2026 main stage during a panel titled “Innovation: Nature-Based Solutions and the New Economics of Circularity.”

The details: - District staff placed unusual items in the compost pile at Wasatch Integrated’s compost facility and tracked how quickly they broke down. - One episode, “Battle of the Burgers: Compost Edition,” compared fast-food burgers against each other. - The campaign answered a common resident question about what belongs in compost by using short-form video built for sharing. - Preston Lee, Wasatch Integrated’s executive director, said the campaign reflects the questions the district hears from residents across Davis and Morgan counties. - Lee said social media lets the district reach residents between collection days and respond to the questions people actually have. - Lee credited Saltworks Digital for helping shape the campaign’s tone. - Nina Groom, social media manager at Saltworks Digital, led the campaign. - Groom said the team trusted real staff, real facilities and honest answers to carry the content. - Saltworks Digital said the agency’s social media marketing work is built around audience interests and uses real people and real places instead of stock imagery. - Saltworks Digital also provides brand strategy, web design, SEO and video production. - The agency offers social media marketing services to clients across industries. - Organizations interested in Saltworks Digital’s social media marketing services can learn more at the company’s services page.

Between the lines: - The campaign’s success suggests that utility messaging can perform better when it feels less institutional and more recognizable to residents. - The award also reinforces the idea that authenticity can be a competitive advantage in social media marketing, especially for public agencies. - The district’s focus on compost testing gave a simple service message a format that felt entertaining rather than instructional.

What's next: - Wasatch Integrated is likely to keep using social media to answer resident questions and extend its outreach beyond collection day. - Saltworks Digital may use the award as proof that its real-people, real-place approach can work for other clients. - The district and agency have not announced a follow-up series, but the format leaves room for more compost experiments and community-focused videos.

The bottom line: - A local waste district turned compost education into award-winning social content, and national judges noticed.