Julie Maurer: Where does my recycling go once it leaves the county drop-off site?

While you are dropping off your bottles or cardboard at the Lenawee County Recycling Drop-Off Site, 307 River St., Adrian, have you ever wondered what happens to it once you put it in the compactor?

In the past it would work like this:

• When a container becomes full, one of our amazing buildings and grounds crew members would call our hauler, LRS (formerly Modern Waste), to let them know it needs to be picked up.

• LRS would then take the recyclables to Granger’s facility in Jackson.

• Granger then shipped it to their materials recovery facility in Lansing for processing.

The county paid two separate bills, one for hauling and one for processing. But that won’t be the case anymore.

In January of this year, the Lenawee County Solid Waste Department put out a request from bids for new hauling and processing contracts — or both. LRS was the top bidder chosen by the Solid Waste Committee and the County Board of Commissioners, and the new contract will save the county a considerable amount of money.

Since Modern Waste became part of LRS, it can offer something that wasn’t possible when we asked for contract bids several years ago — their own in-house materials recovery facility. LRS will now not only haul away our recyclables but process them too. And because they are doing both services, the county receives a discount.

So where does your recycling go now?

Well, the first part of the process is the same. When our containers are full, we call LRS for a pickup. But now, they will take the recyclables to their own transfer station in Jackson before shipping with other loads from the area to their facility near Chicago called “The Exchange.”

The Exchange is a state-of-the-art facility opened in summer 2023 which processes recycling at a rate of 25 tons of recyclables per hour.

At the MRF, your recycling goes through the following process:

• It gets sorted into types of commodities

• Then each type goes to the baler

• Bales of material are stacked together to be loaded into a truck

• Once someone purchases that commodity, it leaves the MRF

• Your recycling is then on its way to becoming something new!

Hopefully, this rundown of the process behind the scenes was helpful! Lenawee County does an amazing job diverting waste from the landfill.

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In 2023, more than 376 tons were sent to the MRF from the recycling drop-off-site alone. Countywide, when factoring in curbside recycling and commercial cardboard collection, our recycling total was 14,043 tons! Keep up the good work Lenawee.

— Julie Maurer is the coordinator of the Solid Waste and Materials Management Program for the Lenawee County Health Department. She can be contacted at 517-264-5263 or via email at julie.maurer@lenawee.mi.us.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Julie Maurer: Where does my recycling go once it leaves the drop-off site?