Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/recycling/)
In our newest TikTok, Echo reporter Danielle James discusses how the pandemic’s impact on supply chains could help the recycling industry bring in new business.
The same supply chain disruptions that slow Michigan manufacturing could help the recycling industry bring in new business.
Michigan’s estimated overall recycling rate is 18%, which lags considerably behind the national average of 32%. Efforts to update recycling procedures, policies and practices are being made across the state.
There is an emerging new worker that could make a career out of sorting recyclables: robots.
Recycling centers adapting to the loss of China as a market might take a look at what has been going on in Michigan’s Emmet County for decades.
Michigan is offering grants of up to $500,000 to improve local recycling programs. When Emmet County got a similar state grant, it bought new and bigger recycling bins for curbside pickup. The amount of recycling jumped. That’s the kind of improvement the state is hoping for with the new round of grants because its recycling rate is way below national averages.
Local officials investigate city’s potential as the center of a deconstruction industry. It’s deep water port could play a role.
It targets lunchroom waste and school supplies.
Local officials say they need funds for special processing equipment for waste that otherwise degrades recycled products and causes expensive disposal problems.
Supporters of the ban say a statewide law is needed to avoid patchwork regulation that hinders businesses with multiple locations.
A new robot could change the game for shoreline trash collection. It will be put to the test this summer in Toronto before going on a mission to clean up an island in Lake Ontario.