Waste Management aims to make Detroit regional recycling hub

[JonWylie]

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/econom...cycling-center

Detroit will soon serve as a recycling focal point for Michigan's Lower Peninsula for the country's largest waste hauler.

Houston-based Waste Management Inc. plans to break ground on its first Detroit materials recovery facility, or MRF, at the end of 2022. The facility will serve surrounding communities, process materials from WM's six transfer stations in the region and serve as the hub for two facilities that process limited commercial recycling, according to a news release.

The $35 million project is slated to be complete by the end of 2023 and will serve industrial, commercial and residential customers, the release said. A WM spokesperson told Crain's in an email that it is still working to finalize a location.

This isn't a super flashy announcement, but I'll be glad if recycling becomes easier in the City.

[K-slice]

Tear down the incinerator and put it there. From the largest trash incinerator in the country, to recycling, poetic justice doesn't get much better.

We need to focus on our trash strewn roads and highways in this area. It's a disgrace to see so much trash strewn everywhere.

[slick]

It's a disgrace to see so much trash strewn everywhere.[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately that is how some folks recycle, let someone else do it!

[Gistok]

I had always thought that incineration was the way to go, since Scandinavian countries went that route. However driving down I-94 past the incinerator during hot summer days left that smell of rotting garbage... that makes people understand wanting to close the Detroit Incinerator, not to mention air quality.

But this link shows that Scandinavian countries did not have the right idea via incinerating their waste...

https://greenallianceblog.org.uk/202...why-copy-them/

[kuuma]

would love to see it. currently the city will not service recycling for my condo building at all. makes me feel like a traitor to the planet to put plastic jugs in with actual garbage.

[Honky Tonk]

would love to see it. currently the city will not service recycling for my condo building at all. makes me feel like a traitor to the planet to put plastic jugs in with actual garbage.

You don't have to be a traitor to the environment, komrade kuuma. Take your recyclables to Recycle Here!

https://detroitmi.gov/departments/de...-drop-facility

[401don]

would love to see it. currently the city will not service recycling for my condo building at all. makes me feel like a traitor to the planet to put plastic jugs in with actual garbage.

Wow. That's hard to believe. Apartment & condo recycling has been mandatory in the Toronto area, and I wrongly assumed all cities, for years.

[Honky Tonk]

Wow. That's hard to believe. Apartment & condo recycling has been mandatory in the Toronto area, and I wrongly assumed all cities, for years.

When you say "recycle" in Detroit, people think you mean "ride your bike again". What gets me is the "millennials trying to save the planet", think nothing about getting in your face for driving a car, but have no qualms about all the items they discard into landfills. You'd think the younger generation would know better.

[K-slice]

Wow. That's hard to believe. Apartment & condo recycling has been mandatory in the Toronto area, and I wrongly assumed all cities, for years.

I used to manage residential buildings downtown and it's true, the city won't provide any kind of recycling for them. I find my blue bin if full every time the bi-weekly pickup comes too. Would love to see it picked up every week as the trash is. Recycling in this city certainly could be improved a lot for sure!

[kuuma]

What gets me is the "millennials trying to save the planet", think nothing about getting in your face for driving a car, but have no qualms about all the items they discard into landfills. You'd think the younger generation would know better.

did it sound like i shared my account with "no qualms"? i hate that the city's outsourced its recycling to third parties that throw so much red tape around that small condos like mine can't even work it out. of course i'd recycle if there were viable options available to do so. back off on your generational slander

[Honky Tonk]

did it sound like i shared my account with "no qualms"? i hate that the city's outsourced its recycling to third parties that throw so much red tape around that small condos like mine can't even work it out. of course i'd recycle if there were viable options available to do so. back off on your generational slander

Don't get your panties in a wad. Did I say YOU had no qualms? I don't know anything about the red tape end of it, nor do I care. More than likely they just empty the blue containers in a landfill, I don't trust them. I've learned to take care of problems myself and not wait for someone to do it for me. There are also several hazmat recyclers around Mid-town.

[Richard]

Recycling is a taxpayer scam,spend millions making and distributing and collecting plastic bins and containers so people can fill them with plastic while 91 % of that plastic will never even be recycled.

Actually the older generation was more into recycling then the newer generation,we bought out liquids in glass bottles and containers that were recycled,we bought groceries that were placed in paper bags that could be re-used or recycled and we bought cars made out of steel and not plastic and we went to a local store for purchases and not ordered stuff online where it costs $1000s to ship package and deliver a $3 item.

The only reason plastic became so popular was because it was easier for the companies to make stuff out of plastic at a higher profit,they had high profits before but it just increased the bottom line.

The only reason people actually care about the planet is because somebody told them it was cool to think that way,you do not actually have to do anything productive,just make it look like you are and if you make money pretending to save the planet as a company or politician all the better.

[MrMichigan]

The only reason people actually care about the planet is because somebody told them it was cool to think that way,you do not actually have to do anything productive,just make it look like you are and if you make money pretending to save the planet as a company or politician all the better.

Dick with the dumb response, as usual

[401don]

Dick with the dumb response, as usual

Freudian slip?

[Richard]

Dick with the dumb response, as usual

MrMichigan - thought that one up all by yourself ? Good thing the site is not age restricted,then you would really feel left out.

Alabama is the recycling hub for New York,they load all of their garbage up on barges and trucks and ship it 1000 miles,people in New York are happy because it is going to be recycled and they were doing their part to save the planet,the reality of it was when it reaches Alabama a big hole in the ground is dug and it is dumped there.

The only thing that was profitable in the recycling industry was a certain form of cardboard,until China stopped buying it and now the only way recycling companies stay in business is with taxpayer subsidies.

Imagine how much fuel is burned simply recycling cardboard in that manner,collect it from the consumers,store it in a warehouse,trucks once again collect it and take it thousands of miles to the port where it is then loaded on a ship and transported another 5000 miles,so what exactly was accomplished other then providing China with materials at our expense so they can make more stuff that is then shipped 5000 miles back to us.

Not very effective when it actually comes to saving the planet.

[MrMichigan]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...real-1.6345558

I agree, recycling programs need to be overhauled.

Emmet County seems to have it right.

https://mlive.com/public-interest/20...ate-model.html

[K-slice]

Freudian slip?

I don't think opinions on Richards posts should be kept under wraps. Otherwise someone might think his opinions are help by humans outside the crotchety old retiree demographic.

[Richard]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...real-1.6345558

I agree, recycling programs need to be overhauled.

Emmet County seems to have it right.

https://mlive.com/public-interest/20...ate-model.html

Kudos to Emmet County for figuring out a final solution and putting it to work,if I lived there I would be recycling.

It would be nice if the same solution was going to be implemented in Detroit instead of being a centralized trash collection facility,it’s WM and personally I find it hard to get behind Detroit becoming the regional dumpster for the sake of limited commercial recycling as an end game.

Canada is just as guilty as the U.S. with their shipping of waste overseas to be dumped,a majority of it never even makes port it is just dumped over the side in the ocean,which is why islands in the South Pacific end up with 3’ of plastic trash on the beach’s with no way to deal with it.

There is to much looking the other way,in the late 70s early 80s there were organizations that was mixing PCBs and other toxic chemicals and heavy metals into home heating oil in order to dispose of it,millions of gallons of toxic heating oil was sold to unsuspecting consumers,as it burned it released the toxins into the air.

It was investigated by the department of energy,but as soon as they found the evidence,it was shut down so it went away.

There is a difference in the perception of saving the environment and actually doing something about saving it.

They can switch back to paper bags in grocery stores,every where you go in the street,lakes and rivers all you see is plastic bags everywhere.

Sure it takes trees but they can also use hemp or thin the forests like they used to do so there was not so many massive forest fires,you are not saving any trees if they end up burning down.

Its never really about protecting the environment or Saving the planet,it’s about generating revenue and whoever looks to generate the most are the ones lobbying against the things that would actually save the environment.

Landfill owners hate recycling so they lobby against it.

Its a $100 billion a year industry filling up those landfills and not recycling.

Waste Management owns over 300 landfills,it is not profitable for them to recycle,they make their money charging city's to dump the trash in the landfill.

Do not be confused on this venture,all they are doing is making the city the regional trash collection point,it will all be hauled into the city then hauled right back out,my guess would be because of the river they will be able to bring trash barges in from Chicago etc.

You thought the incinerator was smelly,this is going to be next level.

Is this what you really want?

[Rocket]

Detroit City Council really screwed us with shutting down the incinerator.

One of the few recycling schemes that actually worked.

And with it, much more waste is being put into landfills, and the gate fees for landfills are up 30% this year.

Combine that with labor prices, and the big waste haulers in Detroit are instituting huge price increases [25% or more], and even with that are facing huge losses.

Get ready for some shocking price increases. The monthly bill at my work just went up more than $100.

25% more for water and 25% more for trash service. My customers better have saved those stimy payments.

[Richard]

Was it the location of the incinerator that really sealed its fate?

We have one that is kinda stuck back in the corner and nobody really notices it or even smells it,the transfer stations,like one one being proposed is another story,downwind or not,get close to them and they make you gag.

Our power company used to own its own coal mines,when it was sold they dumped the coal mines and switched to Natural gas as it was abundantly cheap,just like many cities spent millions swapping out their mass transit buses in favor of Nat gas and are now stuck.

We have a separate $38 per month extra fuel charge and an extra $27 per month for future green energy costs.

My power bill went from $90 in the heat of the summer to $160 in a manner of months,I am fortunate that I can deal with it but there are many low or fixed income where if you do not have $20 - $20 is a lot of money and it is hurting them.

I never really figured out how much of a reduction on the power bill actually comes from the incinerator to energy concept but I think the benefit really does come from not filling landfills.

WM is run like the mafia,they have our contract and they collect if and when they feel like it,no matter how many times you call the country or the company,nobody does anything to change it and they keep re-newing the contract despite opposition,do a search they are like that all across the country.

One would think that instead of making the City of Detroit the regional dumpster they would put another incinerator in a more remote region,but then again they make money off of their landfills so there really is no incentive to have a real solution.

[djtomt]

Was it the location of the incinerator that really sealed its fate?

Yes, yes and yes. The incinerator was located smack dab in the middle of what should be a thriving city neighborhood. Not only that, the smells went for miles around messing up quality of life for many residents. If it was somewhere else, it probably would still be running.

[Rocket]

........... If it was somewhere else, it probably would still be running.

It wouldn't have been built at all somewhere else.

Trash incineration in the USA is considered financially unsustainable, which is why there are so few operating in the US.

The thing that made the Detroit one viable was that it had a third source of income. Besides getting rid of trash and generating electricity, it also heated 100+ buildings downtown. Buildings that were built without their own heating plants. [Which was a luxury at the time, as you wouldn't have a coal-fired smokestack outputting soot all over the side of your building and blackening the windows, and even putting soot inside if a window was opened.]

Without that captive market for steam, the financials don't pan out.


In 2011 they had to build a new natural gas plant to replace the lost steam. It's now called "Detroit Thermal".
https://theconversation.com/garbage-...ce-waste-84182