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DPW History

  

• The Department of Public Works (DPW) was established in response to the closure of the last dump in the County.

• The Transfer Station was built to offer residents and businesses a licensed facility for garbage disposal. Little Traverse Township hosts the facility, at 7363 Pleasantview Road, Harbor Springs.

• Recycle North, in cooperation with Emmet County, applied for and was awarded a grant of $55,000 from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to build a Recycling Center at the Transfer Station.

• The Transfer Station was expanded to include a second disposal bay and compactor.

• The Emmet County Recycling Center (later called the Processing Building) was constructed adjacent to the Transfer Station with the 1986 grant obtained by Recycle North.
• The first Emmet County Solid Waste Management Plan was developed, including a five-year plan to implement recycling and household hazardous waste programs.

• The Solid Waste Management Plan was approved the County Board and the Michigan DNR.
• Emmet County's first full-time Public Works Director, Elisa Seltzer, was hired to implement the Plan.

• Voters passed the County recycling millage. It provided .25 mil for two years to purchase bins for the drop site expansion (see 1992), a collection truck, and processing equipment.
• The Recycling Center opened, taking on two newspaper Drop-off Sites previously operated by Recycle North.
• The Emmet County Recycling began contracting with Recycle North to provide educational programs and publications.
• 80% of waste collected in Emmet County (primarily by private waste haulers) is tipped at the County Transfer Station.

• The Solid Waste Ordinance (Emmet County Ordinance Number 20) was approved by the County Board of Commissioners. The Ordinance provides incentives to recycle and reduce waste by establishing Pay-As-You-Throw. By flow controlling waste to the County Transfer Station it levels the playing field among competing waste haulers and allows secondary funding for recycling operations to be drawn from reliable Transfer Station revenues.
• The County Solid Waste Ordinance was adopted by 18 of 21 townships and municipalities in the County.
• Tax dollars from the County make their last appearance in the DPWs revenue column, as the last appropriation was received from the County General Fund to balance the DPW fund.
• Household Hazardous Waste Center Grant of $100,000 received from the Michigan DNR.

• The Emmet County Solid Waste Ordinance went into effect, requiring volume-based garbage disposal rates and delivery of solid waste to the County Transfer Station.
• An automatic horizontal baler and a sorting conveyor were installed in the Recycling Building.
• Recycle drop-off sites were expanded to ten locations. Everyone in Emmet County is now within six miles of a recycling drop site.

  

• Materials collected for recycling were expanded to include newspaper, steel (tin) cans, glass (clear, green, and brown), and #2 HDPE plastic bottles and jugs.
• Emmet County entered into a competitively bid 10-year contract for solid waste transportation and disposal. Waste Management was awarded the contract.
• Household Hazardous Waste Program began monthly collections.

• An additional loading dock was installed in the Recycle Processing Building.>
• Recycling volumes almost doubled in one year - from 1,200 to 2,200 tons.
• The Recycle Storage Building was erected for indoor storage of plastics, glass, and metals.
• A survey of Northern Michigan transfer stations and recycling programs found that the Emmet County facility had the lowest cost for garbage disposal and the most comprehensive recycling and household chemical drop-off services.
• 80% of waste collected (primarily by private waste haulers) in Emmet County is tipped at the County Transfer Station.

• Employee restrooms and kitchen/lunch area were built.
• Markets for recyclables reached record highs.
• Volume of recyclables climbed another 27%.

• Magazines and catalogs were collected for recycling by Emmet County young people as a fundraiser.
• The DPW “computerized.”
• Corrugated cardboard was added to the materials collected at four drop sites.
• ldquo;Office Paper Plus” was added to the materials collected
• The Transfer Station/Recycling Center’s Saturday hours were extended to 3:00 p.m.

• Phase one of the Recycling Center expansion was completed. The expansion—which was funded by the sale of recyclables in the strong markets of 1994 and 1995—added the Tipping Building (attached to the east end of the Processing Building), the Bale Warehouse, and an in-floor feed conveyor.

  

• Emmet the Recycling Robot mascot joined the staff.
• An improved Household Hazardous Waste Site was developed, offering better visibility, access, and efficiency. (Previously, HHW collections were conducted along the north side of the Recycle Processing Building.)

• The Michigan Recycling Coalition Annual Conference was held at Boyne Highlands, with the DPW acting as local hosts.
• Greyboard (like cereal boxes), textiles, shoes, and hardcover books were added to the list of items accepted for recycling.
• The recycling facility expansion begun in 1997 was completed with the Recycle Processing Building gaining new sorting and feed conveyors, the sort platform, and storage bunkers and silos. The new equipment dramatically increased capacity for and efficiency of materials handling.

• Volume of recyclables collected from drop-off sites jumped 25%.
• Waste industry mergers reduced local haulers from six to three and left only one major national hauler operating in northern Michigan. They were then also the only hauler here which owns a landfill.
• The County Solid Waste Plan Update process, required by the state, began. Emmet County convened its committee. Spurred by the planning process, representatives of 10 northern Michigan counties and municipalities toured the Emmet County Recycling Center and Transfer Station, considered a model rural recycling system.

• Waste Management’s Cedar Ridge Landfill in Charlevoix County closed. Charlevoix County wastes were temporarily diverted to the Emmet County Transfer Station.
• Emmet County Solid Waste Plan Updated submitted to the MDEQ
• The County Solid Waste Ordinance was amended to improve enforceability.
• A backyard compost bin sale distributed over 500 units in just 2.5 hours!
• Brochure racks were installed on all glass/tin drop-site bins, making recycling information available to customers on the spot.

• The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality approved the Emmet County Solid Waste Plan 1998 Update.
• Recycling volumes declined for the first time in program history as private haulers took advantage of high market value of cardboard and sold what they collected themselves.
• An independent Efficiency Assessment of the Emmet County Recycling Facility was conducted by RRT Design & Construction of Melville, New York. They concluded, "The facility is well operated…" and offered seven recommended actions to improve efficency and safety.
• Electronics were added to materials accepted for recycling. They are collected on Household Chemical Drop-off Days for a fee of 25 cents per pound.
• Director Elisa Seltzer received the Michigan Recycling Coalition “Recycler of the Year” Award for Outstanding Public Program.
• New graphics for department programs, including the “e” recycling logo, were developed by Kecia Freed who managed to make even old milk jugs look charming.
• Charlevoix County’s new recycling program contracted with the Recycling Center to process and market the materials they collect.

• Camp Pellston closed, disbanding the crew which sorted paper and plastics at the Emmet County Recycling Center.
• A telephone survey of Emmet County residents’ opinions on their recycling and was disposal options was conducted.
• The Metal Sort System—which sorts steel cans from aluminum foil and cans and bricks the sorted metals—was installed in the Recycle Storage Building.
• Emmet County becomes a Michigan Department of Agriculture Clean Sweep Site, funded to accept pesticides at no charge from any end user in the state.

• The Straits Area Services Crew was hired to sort paper and plastics.
• Republic Waste Services and Subcontractor Poquette Leasing began transporting and landfilling waste from the Transfer Station under a new, competitively bid 5-year contract.
• The Solid Waste Ordinance Administrative Rules were revised.
• The first Emmet County Recycler of the Year Award was given to Carol Simmons, a Harbor Springs teacher who facilitated recycling programs at three schools for twelve years. She hauled nearly 1,000 loads of materials to the Recycling Center!

• A rate reduction was implemented at the Transfer Station: mechanically compacted and tipped waste was accepted for $17.50 per cubic yard, down from $19.00 in 2002.
• The Transfer Station’s leachate collection system and trailer staging area were expanded.
• www.EmmetRecycling.org went live, offering complete information on Emmet County Recycling.
• Mini-surveys were conducted on the subjects of construction and demolition debris recycling, recycling in downtown Petoskey, and curbside collection for businesses.

• Curbside recycling was launched in Bear Creek, Little Traverse, and Resort township and Harbor Springs and Petoskey. Two curbside drivers, Grady Smyley and Harold Evans, who was promoted from the recycle processing staff.

  

• The Transfer Station/Recycling Center was expanded to include employee lunch and locker rooms, an office for the superintendent, and a meeting room.
• A prototype Garbage Gobbler—self serve garbage compactor—was developed and installed at the Transfer Station.
• Plans for the next expansion—compost site, bulky recyclables site (including construction and demolition debris), maintenance garage and gatehouse—were developed.

• First full year of curbside recycling was completed with flying colors. Business customer count passed the 100 mark.
• Bear Creek Township distributed the first Anytime Cleanup Vouchers, allowing their residents to dispose of bulky items at the Transfer Station/Recycling Center (at township expense) at their convenience rather than on a single “spring clean-up” day.
• Annual America Recycles Day tours for all Emmet County 4^th graders were offered for the first time. Over 300 students plus their teachers and chaperones toured the Emmet County Recycling Center in the fall.
• Trillium department logo launched.

• The Bulky Recyclables Area opened. The area provides one-stop recycle drop off for contractors, incorporating scrap metal and large appliances (moved from the driveway area just west of the recycle storage building) and adding collection of rubble, unfinished/untreated wood, and tires.

  

• The composting site opened with collection areas for yard waste, brush, and evergreens in the bulky recyclables area.
• The Transfer Station/Recycling Center/Composting Site is renamed “The Drop-off Center.”
• The Gatehouse opened.
• Electronics were accepted year round for the first time.
• Collection areas for oil, antifreeze, batteries, and fluorescent light bulbs were removed from the Transfer Station Drive Through and clustered in and around the household chemical storage unit. The area is dubbed the “Hazardous Materials Recycling Area.”
• Clothing and shoe collection bins were moved from the Transfer Station Drive Through to the area just west of the Paper and Containers Recycling Drop Site at the Drop-off Center.
• A display of six different backyard composting bins was installed, also adjacent to the paper and containers drop site at the Drop-off Center. Four models are offered for sale on site.
• A mini survey of 100 curbside district residents was conducted.

• Flow control was deemed constitutional and desirable by the United States Supreme Court in a 6-3 ruling on the case United Haulers Association v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority.
• Wawatam Township and the Village of Mackinaw City adopted the County Solid Waste Ordinance.
• New recycling drop sites opened in Mackinaw City and Cross Village.
• Event Recycling was piloted at eight events.
• Cheboygan County’s new recycling program contracted with the Recycling Center to process and market the materials they collect.
• Transfer Station volume dropped 9%, reflecting the slowing economy and increased recycling.

• Carp Lake Township adopted the County Solid Waste Ordinance.
• The first batch of compost from the new Composting Site was finished, screened, and tested. It received rave reviews and sold out.
• Markets for recyclables tanked in the fall as the mortgage crisis caused the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. For example, the market value of #1 plastic bottles and jars dropped 96% in two months (from $270/ton to $10/ton)
• The department received 40 additional event recycling bins under a grant from Coca-Cola and the National Recycling Coalition.
• The First “Big Shred” document destruction event was offered. 615 boxes of documents were shredded.