In 2022, the center collected 462 tons of recycling material with 24 semis filled and 746 bales shipped. It saved 4,241 cubic yards of landfill space.

Center volunteer Paul Griffith said the hard work gets done thanks to a dedicated group of workers.

“We probably have seven or eight people working on a Saturday or Monday to help people start and pulling full bales,” Griffith said. “We own our building, and we own the land. We have a really good operation. I’m happy (that) we just brought some new board members on, at least half of them or more are volunteers and work at the center.”

The center processes a wide number of recyclable materials including cardboard, fiberboard, junk mail, office paper, shredded paper, books, newspapers, magazines, clear and solid or cloudy plastics, clear and crushed glass, tin cans, scrap metal, aluminum and Styrofoam.

The center places emphasis on repurposing many of the materials it regularly receives and will send them off to be reprocessed at other locations, organizations and businesses in Michigan.

With cardboard and fiberboard, recycled material goes to the UP Paper mill in Manistique in the Upper Peninsula, where it is turned into pulp and remade into various cardboard products.

According to Recycle Across America, using recycled cardboard utilizes only 75% the amount of energy versus manufacturing new cardboard. Over 90% of all products shipped in the United States are shipped in corrugated boxes, which totals more than 400 billion square feet of cardboard.

Paper products also are shipped to UP Paper, and some shredded paper goes to Morgan Composting in Hersey to be fed to worms and turned into Dairy Doo.

Newspaper and magazine materials go to Nu-Wool Insulation in Jenison, where it is shredded and treated with a fire retardant, then bagged for sale as attic or wall insulation.

Recycled plastics go to various plastic facilities and are cleaned, sorted and cut into small pieces, then melted to make more plastic.

Per Recycle Across America, recycled plastic uses 90% less water to manufacture versus virgin polyester.

Glass collected by the center is sent to Glass Recyclers Ltd. in Dearborn and is crushed into glass cullet and sold for aggregate in building materials or made into glass again.

Raw glass production expends a substantial amount of energy, according to Recycle Across America. The total energy requirements can be reduced by as much as 80% when half of the material used to make glass is recycled glass.

Scrap metal like tin cans is sent to Padnos in Grand Rapids, where it is melted down and made into new metal. Aluminum travels to R & R Metals in Reed City, where it’s recycled a second time and made into new aluminum.

Lastly, recycled Styrofoam is sent to Dart Container in Mason and made into picture frames.

Griffith said ensuring you recycle clean and appropriate material is helpful to center staff.

“We will sometimes get things like dirty trash and containers that aren’t cleaned properly,” Griffiths said. “Laundry containers in particular often won’t be cleaned of fluid which then gets on the rest of the recycling, which is not good. Knowing what can and can’t be recycled is helpful in us being able to do things smoothly.”

A few Recycle Across America tips for recycling habits include following recycling instructions on containers, composting all food and food-soiled paper when possible, never putting recyclables in plastic bags or putting plastic bags in your regular recycling bin or recycling dumpster, avoiding single-use items and recycling all clean paper and all clean, flattened cardboard boxes.

At Recycle of Mecosta County, six cars at a time will be admitted into the normal recycling area. There are now canvas carts in the parking areas to make it easier to deposit cardboard.

Only center workers will be admitted within the building unless the use of the center’s paper shredder is requested.

According to Recycle of Mecosta County, a car pulls into the center every 1.8 minutes and 132 cars come into the center on open days.

Recycle of Mecosta County is open  9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays and Saturdays at 424 N. Fourth Ave. in Big Rapids.

For more information on the center and information on acceptable recyclable materials visit recyclemecosta.org.