Ann Arbor's Materials Recovery Facility has been closed for nearly five years due to safety concerns. In 2020, the city hired Recycle Ann Arbor to handle recycling and charged it with reopening the facility. Renovation and innovation measures are getting underway, and "The MuRF," as it's called, should open this fall. Recycle Ann Arbor CEO Bryan Ukena joined WEMU's David Fair to update you on this week's "Issues of the Environment."
Overview
- In 2016, Ann Arbor halted operations at the single-stream, Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) due to safety concerns. Right now, recyclables residents place in curbside bins are trucked 250 miles to Cincinnati for processing.
- Last year, local nonprofit Recycle Ann Arbor was hired to get the Materials Recovery Facility off Platt Road up and running again. The decision went against the advice of city staff, which recommended an $11.2-million contract to haul the city’s recyclables to Lansing.
- The American Beverage Association (ABA) in Washington selected Recycle Ann Arbor (RAA) to receive an investment under its Every Bottle Back initiative. That brought $800,000 to the MRF project.
- The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) also contributed $800,000 as part of a larger $1.6 million investment in infrastructure to six public agency and nonprofit recipients in Washtenaw County, Michigan.
- The MRF is expected to launch operations on November 1st, 2021, and it is expected to create at least 20 new manufacturing jobs.
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— David Fair is the WEMU News Director and host of Morning Edition on WEMU. You can contact David at 734.487.3363, on twitter @DavidFairWEMU, or email him at dfair@emich.edu
