GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — A new pilot program in the City Of Grand Rapids aims to reduce contaminants in recycling bins.
The city has partnered with The Recycling Partnership, Prairie Robotics and Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to bring additional cameras onto city refuse and recycling trucks.
"These cameras look specifically at the hopper," said John Gorney, director of Grand Rapids Public Works. "So, as the recycling cart is dumped into the hopper, it looks at all the material, and it's pre-programmed to identify if there are any contaminants."
Common contaminants in the recycling program include plastic grocery bags, Styrofoam and yard waste.
The camera on the hopper with then focus in on the specific item and take a photo. Staff are then able to send a postcard directly to the resident to educate on why that item is not accepted material at the recycling facility.
"If there's contamination for us, if we bring a contaminated load," said Gorney about the city bringing the recycling to Kent County's facility, "we would either get charged more for that load, or the county would potentially reject the entire load, and then we'd have to dump it at the waste energy to be burned. So ultimately, what we hope to do is educate residents to help them recycle properly, so that at the end of the day, we have a better quality material, or the county has better quality material."
The pilot program will last six months. Currently, the cameras are on three of the trucks. East Lansing and three other Michigan municipalities use Prairie Robotics technology. According to the City of Grand Rapids, the program in East Lansing reduced contamination by nearly 25%.
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