Recycling

Michigan’s waste industry has evolved to embrace new technologies in recent decades. Recycling is now an important industry emphasis.

While many benefits of recycling are environmental in nature, it is important to note that the practice has many other positive impacts as well. Recycled materials offer economic advantages to a wide variety of industrial users. Furthermore, large-scale recycling of materials preserves resources for future generations in our society.

Although most existing recycling programs focus on the solid waste generated by households, this is truly just the tip of the iceberg. In 2003, this category accounted for only 250 million tons of materials in the national municipal waste stream, compared with the more than 12 billion tons of waste generated by industries.

As an industrial state, Michigan has an ability to provide national leadership in the area of recycling. The MWIA is working to promote policies that encourage the development of strong markets for recycled materials, thus encouraging the widespread use of this important practice.

Click here to read the MWIA white paper on this subject.