Recycling doesn鈥檛 always come easy on a remote island in northern Lake Michigan. But a grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) will help Beaver Island manage its returnable bottles and cans in a new way. The $86,000 grant awarded to the island鈥檚 two townships, Peaine and St. James, will purchase two 鈥渞everse vending machines,鈥� like the kind found in most supermarkets, to accept 10-cent-deposit beverage containers. The machines will be housed at a community-based redemption center at the Beaver Island Transfer Station and Recycling Center, creating Michigan鈥檚 first deposit return station not located in a retail store.
鈥淭he Beaver Island community is grateful for the actions of EGLE officials in recognizing the complexity and costs associated in managing redeemable containers given our remoteness and our winter isolation,鈥� said St. James Township Supervisor Bobbi Welke, a member of the island鈥檚 Waste Management Committee. 鈥淲e are looking forward to a more streamlined way to manage these containers.鈥�
Beaver Island is the Great Lakes鈥� most remote inhabited island. But while only about 650 people live there year-round, visitors come by the tens of thousands. Ferries serving the island carry more than 40,000 passengers a year, while two companies offer daily shuttle flights year-round. Two island businesses accept returnable cans and bottles, often recycling more than they sell. During the winter, when ferry service is suspended, hundreds of bags of containers bound for recycling on the mainland pile up waiting for boat trips to resume in the spring. The new equipment crushes the plastic, glass, and aluminum containers 鈥� drastically reducing the amount of storage space needed.