Expanding community access to recycling is crucial to the state of Michigan’s effort to achieve a recycling rate of 45% by 2030. In the City of Holland, developing a new recycling drop-off center has proven difficult because information about how to set up and run such a facility is hard to find, if it’s available at all. At the same time, valuable experiential knowledge throughout the recycling industry is poised to disappear as professionals leave or retire without sharing or documenting their insights.

CLC Fellow Lillian Wege’s project addresses these challenges by developing an operations manual for municipal drop-off centers with information sourced from current professionals. The resource includes key considerations for various aspects of a drop-off center, advice from successful facility staff, and an appendix of additional resources and examples. The manual contains diverse helpful information for any drop-off center and can be referenced and adapted by all Michigan communities. Continuing work by the City of Holland and relevant Michigan recycling organizations will build out a comprehensive suite of interactive resources for community recycling programs.

• Location: Holland, MI
• Project Team: Lillian Wege (Fellow, University of Michigan), Dan Broersma (Mentor, Holland Sustainability Manager), Kristen Wieland (Technical Advisor, Resource Recycling Solutions)
• Project Presentation: Slides (PDF), Video (YouTube)
• Project Deliverable: Recycling Drop-off Center Operations Manual for Michigan Communities (PDF)