Residents will be able submit paper recyclable materials to the Kent County Recycling Center starting聽Monday. Kent County began a planned facility outage on Nov. 28 to install new equipment to mechanically sort paper cartons and corrugated cardboard — an effort to keep up with the community’s growing recycling needs. The upgrades amounted to a $1.5 million investment in the facility, according to a press release from the Department of Public Works.
“All the equipment was installed as expected and we’ve tested it to make sure everything is working property so we’re looking forward to seeing the haulers deliver recyclables to us on Monday morning” said聽Nic VanderVinne, Resource Recovery and Recycling Manager.聽“Adding cartons to the recycling stream will address a type of packaging that is growing in popularity but was previously not recyclable in West Michigan.”
The outage was expected to go through Dec. 19, but the county announced it will be ready to begin processing recyclables a day ahead of schedule. It’s located at聽977 Wealthy St. SW in Grand Rapids.
As a result of the upgrades, residents and businesses whose recycling comes to Kent County’s Recycling Center will be able to include cartons. Now materials like聽empty creamer, soy and almond milk containers, juice boxes, milk cartons and boxed water will be accepted.
Staff will be available to answer the public’s questions from 1 to 5 p.m. on Monday聽through Thursday this week.The Kent County Recycling & Education Center is approaching its eighth year of processing single-stream recycling. The center has undergone periodic maintenance and upgrades to adapt to changes in community recycling habits.
The recycling center has also been occasionally shut down聽by explosions, fires and other malfunctions. The incidents have led the county’s Department of Public Works to urge residents to make sure the items they put in their recycling bins are accepted, and refrain from placing dangerous items like old propane tanks into either their recycling or trash collection bins.
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