The Kent County Recycling Center will reopen today, Dec. 18, following scheduled upgrades.
Kent County entered into a planned facility outage Nov. 28 to install equipment to mechanically sort paper cartons and corrugated cardboard to help keep up with the community’s growing recycling needs. Kent County expected the outage to go through Dec.19 but is ready to begin processing recyclables a day ahead of schedule.
“All the equipment was installed as expected and we’ve tested it to make sure everything is working property so we’re looking forward to seeing the haulers deliver recyclables to us on Monday morning” said Nic VanderVinne, Resource Recovery and Recycling Manager for the Kent County Department of Public Works. “We’ve added two major pieces of equipment that will help us manage the incoming material. Adding cartons to the recycling stream will address a type of packaging that is growing in popularity but was previously not recyclable in West Michigan.”
As a result of the upgrades, residents and businesses whose recycling comes to Kent County’s Recycling Center will be able to include cartons, including empty creamer, soy and almond milk containers, juice boxes, milk cartons and boxed water.
The Kent County Recycling & Education Center is approaching its eighth year of processing single-stream recycling. Over the past seven years, the center has undergone periodic maintenance and upgrades to adapt to changes in community recycling habits. Kent County is investing $1.5 million into this round of upgrades.
The Recycling Education Center will be open to the public and staff will be available to answer questions on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week from 1-5 p.m. The facility is located at 977 Wealthy SW in Grand Rapids.
