8B - The Michigan Daily - Weekend, etc. Magazine - Thursday, November 30, 2000
Reclin
If you have ever wondered how you could possibly save 17 trees, 6,953
gallons of water, 463 gallons of oil, 587 pounds of air pollution, 3.06
cubic yards of landfill space and 4,077 kilowatt hours of energy, all you
would need to do is recycle one ton of paper. That seems like a lot, but it
comes easily for the city of Ann Arbor. For the past five years, members
of staff at the Materials Recovery Facility in Ann Arbor have been doing
their part to recover not only paper, but plastic, metal, glass, cardboard,
compost and even clothing. The MRF works on sorting through, separat-
ing, compacting and finally sending off recyclable material from all over
Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, including The University of Michigan and
Eastern Michigan University.
Three years ago the Institute for Local Self Reliance showed statistics
that put Ann Arbor in the top twenty communities in the country for a
recovery rate of 53%. This means that of all the waste that the city was
discarding, 53% of that was recovered for recycling. If this number
remained the same in 1999 as it was in 1997, than that would equal to
about 30,000 tons of material that was saved from being put into landfills.
Not only does the MRF recover recyclables, it is constructed out of
these materials too. The building consists of reprocessed newspaper, milk
bottles and cans- even the asphalt is recycled. All of this added up makes
nearly 14 million pounds of material that has been reused.
When it comes to recycling, it would not be nearly as successful in Ann
Arbor without the help of the Materials Recovery Facility. Since October
of 1998, the MRF has managed to process nearly 100 tons of material
each day. In addition to recycled material, the MRF also processes
garbage- at a rate of 200 tons each day.
So, think twice before you throw out that paper or can, and you'll be
doing your part to save the world.
(Statistics and facts courtesy of the Materials Recovery Facility and
Recycle Ann Arbor)
Bales of paper wait to be picked up from outside the facility. Employees at the Materials R
Phot
Ellie
The Michigan Daily -- Weekend, etc. Magazi
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tecovery Facility work to sort through paper and cardboard recycling.
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A pile of plastic cartons and bottles waits to be separated out.
Glass is sorted out by color for processing. Paper and cardboard get lifted up conveyor belt to be separated.
The. finished product- crushed cans