Michigan got some good Earth Day news: its recycling efforts are at “an all-time high,” the Detroit Free Press said—and that momentum is leading to business and job opportunities for Detroit.
Historically the state with the lowest recycling rate in the Great Lakes at 14.25 percent. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management recently stated that Michigan edged out Indiana with a 21 percent recycling rate.
The Great Lakes State has recycled 625,000 tons of material during the 2022 fiscal year, officials said. Furthermore, “75% of the state’s population now has access to recycling services and nearly 48,500 new curbside recycling carts have rolled out since 2021,” the Detroit Free Press said.
Aiming higher, “Officials said the governor and Legislature are committed to raising the state’s recycling rate to 30% by 2029 and to 45% by 2050.”
Detroit will benefit from this environmental push.
Detroit-based and Black-female-owned company VMX International will receive a $100,000 grant to help build a new $50 million lithium-ion battery recycling facility in the city, opening in 18 to 24 months, the Free Press reported.
VMX Founder and CEO Vickie Lewis told the publication, “the operation will create 50 to 75 high-paying, high-tech jobs, and the company will look to returning citizens or those who have been involved in the justice system. The facility will separate, dismantle and shred materials by separating out rare earth materials from the old batteries to be repurposed into new ones.
WM (formerly Waste Management) “is planning a $35 million recycling processing facility off Interstate 94 in Detroit, in part with a $465,000 Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) grant,” according to the Free Press article. “It plans to process up to 40 tons per hour and receive recycled materials from residential, industrial and commercial properties.”
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