Peter Murray named his company Stardust Sustainables in a nod to Joni Mitchell’s generation-defining song, “Woodstock.” Attuned to the 60s environmental movement from the beginning, Peter worked on a tree farm during college. “I thought it was cool burlap and jute could hold a 2,000-pound root ball together, yet biodegrade in 9 weeks,” he remembers. “I was sure there were other uses.”
Peter first saw Park City on a ski trip 30 years ago. “I said, ‘This is the place.’ I didn’t know it would take decades to get back,” he says. After a landscape architecture career in Virginia, he retired “for about a week,” coming to Utah six years ago.
“We arrived in June,” he said. “My wife and I didn’t know a soul, and our first day, it snowed, so there was a little second guessing! But within a year, we were at home.” That’s when Peter remembered jute. “I was reading about plastic bags destroying our ecosystem, and it hit me,” he recalls.
He started Stardust Sustainables selling “a garage full of jute bags” locally. Soon requests poured in from around the West, and today, “we are the number one producer of reusable/biodegradable bags in the country,” he says.
PC’s lifestyle helps Peter “set my soul free,” as Joni wrote. “Every day includes tennis, pickleball, swimming, skiing, or biking,” he says, all while loving his business life. “It’s like a board game to me,“ he laughs. ”Fun, exciting and social, so it never feels like work.”
Like many of the Woodstock generation, Peter loves learning and growing. “I’ve started playing the sax,” he says, “the most challenging and enjoyable thing I’ve done in a long time.”
We love knowing Peter keeps life joyful while doing good for the planet – doing his part to get us all “back to the garden.”
