"The (Pathetic) State of Recycling in Michigan"

By Ted Sylvester
August/September Issue, 2005

Despite the fact that recycling can be good for both the environment and the economy, recycling efforts and opportunities in Michigan are dismal. The state’s municipal recycling rate of 20% is the lowest in the Great Lakes Region and one of the lowest in the nation. Michigan’s annual recycling budget of $200,000 is also dead last in the region and 41st nationally.

The last time Michigan’s Solid Waste Policy was updated was in 1988, when goals were set for what the state’s waste stream should look like in 2005. Since then the economics of waste disposal have changed significantly,and as a result the state is not incinerating a planned 40% of its municipal solid waste (it’s around 11%). However, Michigan has not achieved even the modest goal of recycling 25% of its garbage while the amount it landfills has skyrocketed to 69%.

A recent Michigan Department of Environmental Quality report notes that Michigan “has strong recycling programs in the Bottle Bill, household hazardous waste collections, and some business recycling,” but concludes, “Michigan’s population is still underserved and lacks the opportunity to have their waste recycled rather than landfilled or incinerated.”

The Feb. 2005 DEQ report points to a lack of established methods at the state level to measure the capacity to handle, collect, transport, and market recyclable materials. In 1996 the legislators mandated that the DEQ collect recycling data but never provided the necessary funding. Consequently, the DEQ’s report often cites data from the 1999 Michigan Recycling Measurement Project (MRMP), conducted by the non-profit Michigan Recycling Coalition (MRC) with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant.

The MRMP provided the first comprehensive overview of recycling activities in the state. In 1999 a total of 347 curbside and 425 drop-off programs served an estimated 3.67 million and 5.47 million residents respectively. Municipalities, townships, and villages managed a total of 493 programs and processing facilities, county agencies another 150, governmental authorities 46, private businesses 40, and non-profits 21.

The MRMP concluded that as many as one-half of Michigan’s nearly 10-million residents do not have access to any recycling services (not counting those with access to private haulers). There are no curbside recycling services in 30 of the state’s 83 counties, and 18 counties are without drop-off sites. “Residents with access to drop-off sites tend to be under serviced,” the report notes, “with an average of 23,385 people to each drop-off station in the state.”

The MRMP found that a total of 225 curbside and 92 drop-off programs accepted residential yard waste, and the state has a total of 163 compost sites and 49 material recovery facilities.
In 1999, Michigan diverted 2.5 million tons from landfills and incinerators through its recycling programs, according to the MRMP. That breaks down to 1.4 pounds of recyclables per person, per day. The categories of collected materials included metals (33%), organics (29%), paper (28%), glass (7%), plastics (2%), and other (1%).

Despite Michigan’s low recycling rate, the MRC characterizes recycling in the state as a “strong industry with powerful growth potential.” They point to MRMP findings that recycling in the state creates jobs, generates revenues, and stimulates capital investments. The processing of recyclables alone generates nearly $2 billion from the sale of recycled commodities each year. Processors employ more than 5,000 people with a total annual payroll of over $137 million. And for each job created by recycling processors, an additional job is created in other industries.

“The results of the MRMP illustrate the need for a proactive approach to fostering recycling programs, businesses, and markets in the state,” according to the MRC.

“The states with the highest recycling rates and greatest opportunity to recycle also have strong statewide solid waste and recycling policies,” echoes the DEQ report. “State governments that provide support to local governments in the form of technical and financial assistance, accompanied by clear goals and the tools needed to achieve these goals, have the highest recycling rates.”

The DEQ report notes that Governor Jennifer M. Granholm has called for a 40% recycling rate by 2008 and hints at some of the difficulties of that challenge: “Michigan has nationally recognized residential recycling programs like those in Ann Arbor (see Model Program Puts Community Before Profit) and Mackinac Island. However, Michigan also has communities, like the city of Detroit, with some of the lowest recycling rates in the country.”

“If all Michigan residents were to have access to a recycling program on par with the best programs in the state,” the report asserts, “recycling processing capacity would need to more than double.”

The DEQ report specifically calls on the state to implement a market development program for recycling, provide grants to communities for collection programs, and providetax incentives to businesses to use recycled feedstock in manufacturing products. The report also notes that the most successful states have economic packages that attract recycling businesses.

For more information about the Michigan Recycling Measurement Project contact the Michigan Recycling Coalition at info@michiganrecycles.org.

Ted Sylvester is editor of From the Ground Up.

S I D E B A R :

Michigan Recycling Annually Reduces

• energy use by 40 billion BTUs

• greenhouse gas emissionsby 1.4 million metric tons of carbon equivalents
• air emissions by 2.2 million tons

• waterborne wastes by 8,000 tons

(source: Michigan Recycling Coalition)

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