Kiwanis Club and Algiers County Recycling Committee discuss possible recycling program

ALGIERS COUNTY, Michigan (WLUC) – Members of the Algiers County Kiwanis Club met with the county recycling committee on December 15 to discuss their attempt to update the Algiers recycling program.

Last summer, the groups teamed up to offer a green waste disposal option to residents. “It was three months in the summer, from June to September, where we installed a dumpster, brought people in, we charged two dollars per bag for their recyclables to enter,” said the chairman of the committee. Algiers County Recycling, Chris Case.

The program had 74 participants and collected almost 2 tonnes of waste that would otherwise have gone to a landfill. Case says efforts like this can have an extremely positive impact on the environment, which he thinks many people in Upper Michigan take for granted.

“If we can reduce the amount of material that goes into a landfill and reuse that material for something else, it’s a win-win,” he says. “We enjoy the outdoors and everything in UP, and part of that, for me anyway, is protecting the environment we live in.”

Although last summer’s program ended on August 30, residents of Algiers County may soon have a chance to determine a future recycling program. The one that is permanent.

Case says Algiers lags behind counties like Marquette when it comes to people’s ability to recycle. “They combined their solid waste disposal and recycling programs,” he says. “I think this is really an important element which represents a challenge for the county of Algiers.”

Today, Kiwanis and the Algiers County Recycling Committee are looking to make recycling easier for everyone in the county. “Our hope would be that we would have something practical like curbside recycling in the town of Munising, that would definitely be a goal, and then in the rural areas we would have drop-off points that would be conveniently located,” Case said. .

The committee plans to send a recycling survey to residents by February 2022 to get their views on how to move forward. Case urges people to complete this form when they receive it. “This winter’s recycling survey will be essential for people to complete so they can tell leaders in their community what they think about recycling,” says Case.