Western Upper Peninsula counties have partnered in the past five years to begin preparing a materials management plan as the state of Michigan will start to require each county to transition from solid waste management plans.
The Copper Country Recycling Initiative says the transition to materials management will take time and dedication to accomplish. CCRI Executive Director Jonathon Nagel adds that in rural regions items that people often think can go in recycling cannot. Such as glass recycling in the Upper Peninsula. The nearest glass recycler is located across state lines. Other materials, including old car tires, present several challenges.
“What we do with them is a pretty challenging topic,” said Jonathan Nagel, executive director of the Copper Country Recycling Initiative, referring to scrap tires. “One of the things why Dr. Yu has been researching this as putting it into roads is what are some alternative uses to these scrap tires? Because we don’t really want them to end up in landfilling.”
Nagel said it’s only slightly more preferable to see tires in waste-to-energy operations.
“They’re very challenging materials. What we don’t want to see is people stockpiling them or hoarding them,” he said.
In the community Copper Country Recycling Initiative has organized educational programming to inform residents on opportunities for expanding recycling. Or even to talk about different ideas for how materials can have a renewed purpose. Rather than ending up in landfills.
Next week, the Copper Country Recycling Initiative will host “Engineering Value from Waste: Glass Tires and Landfill Mining” at the Orpheum Theater. The program continues a series of informative talks with experts on waste management and recycling initiatives. The Copper Country Recycling Initiative is also involved with the region’s preparation plans for a new materials management plan. Nagel says those public meetings for the MMP Committee take place on the second Thursday each month at 2 pm at WUPPDR’s Hancock Office. CCRI holds its monthly on the second Wednesday at 6:30 pm at the Portage Lake District Library.
The Engineering Value from Waste: Glass Tires and Landfill Mining program begins at 7 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Orpheum Theater in Hancock. Learn more about the program here.
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