September 10, 2019

Grand Blanc Township receives ‘Going Green’ Award

Grand Blanc Township has a new accolade to add to the community’s resume - they are the recipient of the Going Green Award. Going Green Awards are presented by the Emterra Rewards program, a local initiative designed to increase recycling in communities across Michigan State serviced by Emterra Environmental USA.

“Grand Blanc Township is a long term customer and they have been steadily increasing their recycling participation,” explains Angelo Caramagno, General Manager of Emterra Environmental USA. “They are the first community that we are granting this designation to, and we definitely want to continue and grow this part of our program in the future.”

Emterra Rewards is a program designed to help promote recycling efforts in the community. For those who are active recyclers, after taking their material to the curb, they login and record that, “I Recycled Today.” Through the program, users gain points every time they recycle, and these points can be redeemed for offers ranging from local savings to national deals.

“Grand Blanc consistently has a high recycling participation rate and beyond participating, they are providing us with a high quality recyclable material with low contamination levels,” explains Angelo. “And, as the recycling industry changes and adapts to new global trends, keeping contamination rates low is becoming more and more important.”

High quality recyclables are the result of residnets putting items in their bin athat are actually supposed to be there and that generates a low contamination rate. It is a difficult time in the recycling industry in North America. There is an increased interest and understanding that we need to recycle more. However, and on the flipside, it is more difficult than ever to find buyers for recycled material. As such, To help, it is really important to recycle right and follow the acceptable items guidelines presented by your community.

“We don’t want people putting material in their bin because they think or want it to be recyclable. This is called 'wish-cycling,'” explains Angelo. “Putting material to the curb in recycling bins that doesn’t belong there increase costs, decreases the value of the material and limits the number of buyers who might be interested in it.”

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