Municipal

Michigan EGLE announces NextCycle recycling initiative

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) has announced a new recycling effort called NextCycle Michigan that is aimed at sparking the state’s recycling and recovery economy. The program is a joint effort with the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, bipartisan lawmakers and grocery retailer Meijer, EGLE says.

NextCycle Michigan will help fund infrastructure investment designed to promote the development of markets for recycled materials and recycled products, including manufacturing, says EGLE Materials Management Division Director Liz Browne.

“[This partnership is] uniquely exciting because this level of commitment and partnership to comprehensively promote recycling between Michigan’s private sector and the state government has never happened before in our state’s history,” Browne says. “In fact, we believe NextCycle Michigan marks the greatest accomplishment in recycling since our state achieved its first-in-the-nation status by introducing the bottle bill law in 1976.”

As part of the NextCycle Michigan initiative, EGLE announced that in 2020 and 2021, $97 million had been committed to recycling projects through partners that include Henry Ford Health System, GFL Environmental, Carton Council of North America, Goodwill Industries, Keurig Dr Pepper, Foodservice Packaging Institute, U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, Emterra Environmental, Washtenaw County and Great Lakes Tissue, as well as more than 30 Michigan companies, organizations and nonprofits.

“The NextCycle Michigan Initiative and Renew Michigan grants mark the largest push in state history to promote recycling activities that divert materials from Michigan landfills, boost local economies and support Gov. Whitmer’s climate change priorities through reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” EGLE Director Liesl Clark says.

Emterra, for example, has opened a $9 million material recovery facility (MRF) built through a collaboration with the cities of Lansing and East Lansing, Michigan. The facility will use robotics to process recyclables from more than 676,000 households across 12 counties in and around Lansing, increasing access to recycling throughout the region and creating new jobs in Lansing. The recyclables will go to businesses like Great Lakes Tissue in Cheboygan, Michigan, which turns old cartons into toilet paper sold in grocery stores such as Meijer.

EGLE also announced more than $4.9 million in Renew Michigan grants to recipients in 45 communities statewide that will support the initiative.

“The funding is part of EGLE’s strategy to support recycling infrastructure, improve the quality of recyclable materials and promote market development using the Renew Michigan Fund, which was created in 2019 to bolster the state’s recycling efforts,” Clark says.

With its partners, EGLE says it’s planning to use public and private investment in Michigan’s recycling system to put materials once destined for the landfill to use in manufacturing.

To see the full list of grant recipients, visit www.RecyclingToday.com/article/michigan-recycle-initiative.