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2017 was another good year for Alpena Resource Recovery Facility (ARRF).  We received, with the help of Diane Rekowski at Northeast Michigan Council of Governments, a $50,000.00 grant from the Michigan DEQ for equipment purchase.  Alpena County Recycling Board added an additional $38,000.00 to that amount, and we were able to purchase a used refurbished horizontal baler from speed tech from Grand Rapids, which replaced our old vertical bales, a new Skid Steer from Don’s in Alpena, which replaced our 1972 lift truck, a Moly Magnet from Don’s in Alpena which replaced our hand magnets, and a new dumper box from Endura-Veyor, Inc. in Alpena.

With the refurbished horizontal baler, we are now baling paper. Prior to this, we were sending out all of our paper in Gaylord Boxes at $6.00 a box with no return. We ship out 80 boxes per month.  Along with each Gaylord Box was a pallet. Pallets are free, but we had the expense of going to get them. Now, rather than going every two weeks for pallets, we go every two months. It was costing us $500.00 a month for Gaylord Boxes and pallets to ship out paper. We have baled as much as six bales of paper in one day.

Our old vertical baler was always tied up with one product to be baled. In order to get a tight, heavy bale, it would take a day and a half to bale. This would also cause problems in sorting plastic products. Now with the new baler and dumper box, products are not tied up. New bales can be generated every two hours. The baler is constantly being used doing paper, plastic, tin and aluminum.

The new Moly Magnet has saved us time and effort in so many ways! We get many tin cans in our roll offs. Before we got the Moly Magnet, it would take us at least a day or so to fill a Gaylord Box with tin cans. With the new Moly Magnet we can fill two Gaylords in about half an hour. We are required by A&L Iron to now bale tin cans, and with the new baler and dumper box, we don’t have to interrupt sorting on the plastic bay.

We have finally found a buyer for #3 through #7 plastic. ReVital Polymers of Sarnia, Ontario is now taking all our #3 through #7 plastic. They process the plastic into pellets and sell to automotive companies to be used into making plastic parts for cars.

In 2017, we processed 23 more roll offs than 2016. A total of 904 roll offs were processed in 2017. The Habitat location produces the largest number of roll offs processed, while the Neimans location is second and the Ossineke location is third. In 2011, when we started recycling, we processed a total of only 381 roll offs.

-Stan Mischley, Manager