Report: Michigan could create up to 13,000 jobs through comprehensive recycling effort

By Sven Gustafson

November 13, 2009, 4:24PM

Michigan could add as many as 13,000 new jobs if the state boosted its recycling rate average to equal rates in neighboring Great Lakes states, a new report concludes.
 
The report from Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants finds that Michigan's recycling rate of 20 percent lags behind its Great Lakes state neighbors, which average 30 percent. The state has 2,242 recycling and reuse industry establishments that collectively employ nearly 62,000 workers, the research firm said. 

" Michigan's recycling rate is declining, unlike almost every other state," said Bill Rustem, president and chief executive of Lansing-based PSC.

The report, which was commissioned by the Michigan Recycling Partnership, concludes that increasing Michigan's recycling rate to 30 percent would create between 6,810 and 12,986 job and as much as $22 million in state tax revenue. Comprehensive recycling would include expanded curbside pickup programs and more drop-off stations for cans, paper, bottles and plastic containers.

An estimated 37 percent of Michigan residents have access to curbside recycling programs, lowest in the Great Lakes region, with the largest curbside program in Grand Rapids, Rustem said. 

Many of the jobs that would be created through increased recycling would come from pickup, material handlers and other low-skill occupations. But more raw material made available through recycling would present opportunities for entrepreneurs, said Rustem, who cited building insulation and fill for winter jackets as examples.

"Once you create enough of that stuff, you create a supply," he said. "Some entrepreneur will figure out, 'OK, there's a demand here, I can use it.' But we don't have it in one place. We just put it in landfills." 

The report said expanding Michigan's 1976 bottle deposit law to include juice containers and bottled water isn't the answer because it would limit the mix of valuable material available to recycling companies. 

Expanding recycling in the state would depend on a subsidy, Rustem said. A so-called "penny plan" proposal that has long floated around in the Capitol would add one cent to every transaction over $2 to help fund municipal curbside recycling programs. 

An April poll by Lansing-based Marketing Resource Group found that 81 percent of Michigan voters support comprehensive recycling.