Houghton Seeks to Address Recycling Needs in Downtown

Houghton has begun considering ways to bring recycling back to downtown. A year after the city switched to larger trash bins and modern Waste Management trucks, city manager Eric Waara says that downtown looks much better on pick-up day. The city wants to consider three options to solve recycling in the downtown area; a similar system to the old one that used carts and bins, setting up a drop-off site at the DPW garage, or strategically located recycling dumpsters around the sector. 

“And now that we’ve got some experience in how things work, I think it’s time we try this and with summer coming. So if it’s the direction the Council would like to go, it could be a simple motion and vote and we’ll start to work with Waste Management on getting those deployed. Again, it’s going to cost about $1,000 a month. We can offset probably about little less than half of that by bringing recycling back for those places that are on private ones right now. Like the, take the Sheldon D building there where Cyberia and Victoria’s is, they have their dumpster behind the building that they use. But they don’t have access to recycling. We would place a small charge on that building so their residents could use the recycle dumpster. The closest one for them would probably be the one behind the city center which would be there are the one across the street.” – Eric Waara, City Manager, City of Hoghton

When the city implemented the new trash ordinance it left recycling out knowing that a solution would need to come. Before a new recycling system can start in Houghton with five locations the city council will need to amend the ordinance. Waara will present a potential amendment to the council at the next May meeting. Additionally, the city council approved selling a 2006 city truck for scrap. The vehicle was totaled during an accident last year. A final item included approving the state transportation drug and alcohol policy changes for the transportation department. The state recently updated the policy and requires passage by all municipalities that operate a bus system.