October 14th, 5:30 pm
Reclaiming Recycling: How Mission-Based Recyclers are Leading Us to Zero Waste, in Michigan and Across the Country
For 50 years, recycling has been one of the country’s most popular and effective ways to cut climate pollution, air and water emissions, and natural resource depletion. But the U.S. recycling industry has been largely taken over by the waste and packaging industries, and recycling itself has been thrown into crisis as a result.
Today, the country’s original mission-based recyclers — including our own Recycle Ann Arbor — are reemerging as a movement to reclaim recycling as the powerful tool for climate justice and healthy communities that it was meant to be. During this briefing, you’ll hear about national efforts to promote zero waste, and about Recycle Ann Arbor’s plans to reclaim the City of Ann Arbor’s shuttered materials recovery facility, and convert it back into a regional hub for zero waste in southeast Michigan.