Michigan’s recycling rate is the lowest of the Great Lakes region with only 15 percent of all recyclable materials actually making it to the recycling bin, but Emmet county has more than doubled that number with 40 percent of all recyclables being recycled.
It's not uncommon to see and Emmet County Recycling truck driving through neighborhoods. In this county, eight out of every ten households recycle.
Last year alone, nearly 9,000 tons of material were recycled in Emmet County.
Andi Shepherd is the director of the Emmet County Department of Public Works. She said education is a huge part of getting people to recycle, and it’s something the county continues to improve.
“We try to be available for people, they can ask us questions, we have social media, we have a good website, we try to have an open door policy in our office, we try to go out and do a lot of events. So we just try to be active in the community,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd said in many communities, the education budget is the first thing cut - something she said is a mistake because it’s important for residents to understand the county’s message and policies on recycling.
In 2015, Emmet County recycling began partnering with local businesses to be even more open to the public. They started to help restaurants compost waste and cut down the amount of trash they produce. Shepherd said when businesses compost, it’s good for the environment.
“Keeping food scraps out of the landfills prevents methane from being created,” Shepherd said. “And so by composting them, instead of creating methane in the landfill, composting creates a resource that help build soils, helps prevent erosion, helps retain water.”
Restaurants spend lots of money on trash, Shepherd said. Emmet county recycling began helping them cut down on those expenses by offering the composting program.
Emmet County flips the typical recycling structure. Here, residents pay to throw out their trash in the county, not to recycle.
“Paying for garbage helps people consider recycling. So in some communities your garbage is covered and you have to pay for your recycling. But here, you have to pay for your garbage and recycling is free,” Shehperd said.
When recycling arrives at the recycling center, the sorting is different than other counties across the state.
“It’s not paper and plastic. ‘Cause we have our paper cartons in with the containers and we have our plastic bags in with the paper. So one way we kind of look at it is materials that can stay wet versus materials that need to stay dry,” Shepherd said.
It’s a dual sorting process. Shepherd said it prevents contamination of the products, like juice getting on paper and lowering it’s value.
Emmet County is one of the few counties in Michigan to accept plastic bags in curbside recycling bins. Shepherd said many communities don’t take them because it would jam their sorting machines.
“Most recycling programs don’t accept plastic bags because they are fully automated. So they have some different pieces of equipment that plastic bags can get wrapped up into,” she said.
Many communities don’t take plastic bags in curbside recycling, but they typically can be recycled elsewhere. To view where to recycle in your community, go to the Michigan Recycling Directory.
In Emmet County, people help the automation. Workers stand along a conveyor belt and take out anything that can’t be recycled in that line.
Mike Williams is a processor. He sorts recyclables so that everything that can be recycled, and everything that can’t, makes it to the right place.
“At the end of the paper line, it’s supposed to be paper, mostly. And so we have to take everything that’s in the paper that’s not paper, considered paper, off,” Williams said.
After everything is sorted, the material is baled, or crushed into a cube, to be shipped out.
Ninety-five percent of all materials that are recycled in the county stay in Michigan. Shepherd said cardboard, like cereal and juice box boxes, are sent to Cheboygan, where “recycling” meets “reusing”
“We send that to Great Lakes Tissue in Cheboygan and they make new paper towel and toilet paper. And then we can actually buy it and use it here so it’s a full closed-loop system,” she said.
Shepherd said the only material that doesn’t stay in Michigan is the plastic bags which get sent to Trex Decking in Virginia to be made into decking planks.
As efficient as their sorting process is, Emmet County is still looking to make improvements. The county received an $800,000 state grant last month, which will be used to improve the efficiency of their sorting, Shepherd said.
“Upgrades are really just going to simplify our line. So one of the changes is we’re going to get the glass out early, so it’s not adding additional wear and tear on the equipment,” she said.
Currently, when the glass bin gets full, the whole line needs to be shut down so the glass can be dumped into the proper sorting room.
The grant will also help to fund new equipment that is over 10 years old. The county is also looking to add robots to the sorting lines to help sort plastics.
Michigan’s statewide recycling efforts are expanding. Since last year, 13 million dollars more in funds have been put toward recycling efforts. Counties throughout the state can apply for grants to help improve recycling. And the hope is with EGLE’s plans, more Michigan counties will be brought to the same gold-standard that Emmet County has set for the green industry.