WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI - Officials in Ypsilanti Township are gearing up to distribute more than 15,000 new recycling carts this fall in an effort to boost recycling, while cutting down on fees residents have to pay to participate in curbside collection.

As it stands, residents participating in the township’s curbside program purchase smaller bins or rent them from Waste Management, the company contracted to run biweekly pickup routes.

That cost has increased significantly in recent years, township Residential Services Director Mike Hoffmeister said.

Now, with almost $865,000 in grants amassed from three sources, township officials are purchasing new 96-gallon carts and distributing them to all single- and two-family households in the township, some 15,165 in total, according to Hoffmeister and township documents.

In larger apartment complexes, waste removal is privately contracted by landlords or property managers and won’t be affected by the curbside cart distribution initiative, Hoffmeister said.

Officials hope the effort will encourage more residents to recycle, boosting the 52% of eligible households that currently participate in the curbside collection program, according a grant summary.

“Another goal is to decrease contamination though education of what’s accepted and what’s not, but also it’s to alleviate our residents having to pay a rental fee,” Hoffmeister said. 

The effort is powered by a grant of roughly $580,000 from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, another $243,000 from national nonprofit The Recycling Partnership and $40,000 from the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office, according to a township memo.

Similar funding announced by state officials in 2020 — then heralded as the largest expansion of recycling in Washtenaw County’s history — flowed to expanding public recycling containers in the city of Ypsilanti and to receptacles on Ann Arbor Public Schools campuses, among other initiatives across the area. 

In Ypsilanti Township, elected leaders OK’d the grants and purchase of the new carts for households during their Tuesday, Aug. 16 meeting. Their approval sets the initiative in motion, Hoffmeister said.

Informational mailers are being put together and will be sent to residents in late September and early October, he said, with carts beginning to be delivered on Oct. 31.

Officials hope to complete the deliveries by Thanksgiving and start service using the new carts on Dec. 5, Hoffmeister added. Residents will also have the opportunity to swap the new 96-gallon carts for smaller 64-gallon containers, he said, though the details and timing of that process haven’t been determined.

Part of the process will include educational measures for residents over which items are recyclable, efforts that are also underway in Ann Arbor.

Residents won’t see any charges associated with the recycling cart rollout — a “huge cost” for the township made possible through the grants, Hoffmeister said.

But the effort will also have a potentially big payoff in Washtenaw County’s second largest municipality, according to grant documents.

After it is complete, some 7,200 households that don’t currently use curbside recycling will be positioned to join the program in Ypsilanti Township.