LOOKING FORWARD

Officials approve study to determine recycling center’s future

Isabella County commissioners approved a study to determine how to proceed with the county’s 30-year-old recycling facility.

Resource Recycling Systems will get $39,700 to study whether it would be effective to modernize the Materials Recovery Facility, 4208 E. River Road, from a system where recyclables are pre-sorted before being brought in by waste haulers to one where they are sorted on-premises with newer technology.

At last week’s human resources and public works meeting, MRF director Jake Borton said that the RRS bid cost less than expected and took the job at an accelerated timeline. Rather than paying $60,000$80,000 for a study that would start in September and conclude by the end of 2022, the county is paying approximately $40,000 for a study expected to be wrapped up by the end of the summer.

County officials are concerned about the continued financial drag the MRF is having on county finances. This fiscal year, the county commission allocated $450,000 to subsidize the recycling center’s operations, which is co-owned by the county and Mt. Pleasant. The facility was originally intended to operate as a self-sufficient operation.

Isabella County’s financial future is complicated by competing priorities to pay for a new jail and sheriff’s office, unfunded pension liabilities and additional costs in wages for most county employees.

It’s hoped that the study will tell county officials whether they can invest money and turn Isabella County’s recycling center into a regional center, accepting waste from counties without their own MRFS. Currently, waste haulers servicing those coun

ties truck their recyclables to Grand Rapids and other places.

A more modern so-called “singlestream” recycling facility could make Isabella County an attractive destination so that waste haulers don’t have to pay extra in trucking costs.

Addressing the MRF’S future was one of the first goals articulated to the county administrator by Nicole Frost, who took over in January as county administrator. At the time she noted that operations at the center had not kept up with the times.

ERIC BAERREN — THE MORNING SUN Mike Hutchins, of Mt. Pleasant, dumps recyclables into a unit for glass at the Isabella County Materials Recovery Facility, 4208E. River Road, on Thursday afternoon. The county commission approved a feasibility study on Tuesday to examine the 30-year-old facility’s future.