Nationally, a lot of plastic gets thrown away even if it goes in a recycle bin. But the people in charge of recycling in the City of Kalamazoo say it all depends on where you live. 鈥淭here鈥檚 value in these materials in Michigan, to have them be recycled,” said Chris Broadbent, the solid waste coordinator for the city of Kalamazoo.
Broadbent said Kalamazoo’s recycling program accepts plastics numbers one through seven because there is a market for them. He said the city sends its recycling to a material recovery facility in Elkhart, Indiana, where it is sorted, bundled and sold to manufacturers to make new products.
Broadbent said number two plastics in particular – things like milk and laundry jugs – currently sell for about $33 a pound at that facility. Justin Gish is Kalamazoo’s sustainability planner. He said visits to the Elkhart facility have convinced him that recycling in the region works.