For those of us that are avid recyclers there was a glimmer of hope this fall that we will have the opportunity to bring others into the recycling fold. If you happened to miss the headlines a couple weeks ago, the Department of Correction put Jackson County on notice that they were going to no longer buy steam from the Resource Recovery Facility (RRF) or the incinerator.  With that news the county announced that it would close the incinerator at the end of October.  With that announcement we had a glimmer of hope that the county might consider expanding recycling opportunities in the county.

To voice our support to the county leaders about expanding recycling, Recycling Jackson, other environmentally focused organizations and individuals attended a County Commission meeting to outline how the county could pay off the bonds for the incinerator while they expanded recycling in our community.  We offered our support not only with implementing expanded recycling, but also with educating the community about the benefits of recycling.

Well, within a couple weeks there was another announcement that the state and the county had come to an agreement to allow the prison to continue to purchase steam generated by the RRF. With that announcement the county stated that the RRF would stay open.

While that announcement does give us pause, all is not lost.  There is still work going on behind the scenes to address some issues that have somewhat been ignored in the past.  If you feel strongly about the county expanding the opportunity for recycling in our community we encourage you to contact your State legislator and your county commissioner to voice your support of adopting a more environmentally friendly way to deal with our trash.

In other good news, RJ’s recycling drop off site will be open next year. Our hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  In January we will be open on the second Saturday of the month due to New Years day being the first Saturday of the month.  We will not be open in February as that is our slowest month of the year due to the weather.  The rest of the year we will be open the first Saturday of the month.

We have dropped our ewaste prices benefiting from the Michigan electronic collection law that went into effect in April of 2010.  We will also have two community e-waste drives next year and have committed to have another ewaste drive in Hillsdale with the support of Alsons’ corporation.

As you can tell we have a busy year in front of us and we really need your continued financial support.  We encourage you to support our operations with a tax deductible financial contribution.  We have made it easy to donate by clicking on the link on our website or you can just mail us your donation.

Thank you for your ongoing support and your interest in recycling and Recycling Jackson.

Happy Holidays!

Steve Noble
Recycling Jackson president