Now, the Alpena Resource Recycling board is moving forward with a plan to build a new, state-of-the-art recycling center near the Alpena County Regional Airport.

According to officials, the $5.8 million facility is expected to be completed in 2024.

Alpena County Commissioner Don Gilmet, who has sat on the recycling board for about a decade, said the current recycling facility on M-32 is no longer suited to handle the amount of material that’s processed.

He said a new facility allows for more products to be sorted, more efficiently. Gilmet said when the new facility is built, there will be enough recyclables from Alpena County to keep it busy, and it is also possible that other nearby communities, outside of Alpena County, will utilize it.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Alpena resident Cheryl Dziesinski adds recyclables to a recycling bin behind the Thunder Bay Shopping Center in Alpena on Wednesday.

The current facility, Gilmet said, isn’t capable of handling that large of an amount efficiently and expanding the old plant isn’t in the cards.

“There is no way to expand it on that property,” Gilmet said. “The idea is to build a new facility in Alpena and make it a hub for the region. We need a bigger facility to properly process what we bring in now, and what we bring in in the future.”

The recycling board has already been promised a $1 million grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. It has asked the Alpena County Board of Commissioners for money from the nearly $5.5 million it received from the federal American Rescue Act stimulus package to cover the $1 million match.

The commissioners are considering the request, and while they do, Alpena Mayor pro tem Cindy Johnson, who is on the recycling board, said the recycling board continues to seek more funds to help pay for the cost of the project.

Johnson said the Alpena recycling program was the only one in the state to receive $1 million and she said the state allocated that amount because it knows recycling in Northeast Michigan needs a little support to help it accomplish the goals set by local leaders.

“The state believes in what we are doing here,” Johnson said. “It knows there is a need for more recycling in this area. We will continue to look for other grants every day and we’re going to get this done.”

Gilmet said there is room for further growth in recycling in Northeast Michigan. There are many people who don’t yet recycle, which adds more trash to landfills and negatively impacts the environment.

He said there are talks about offering curbside recycling pickup in Alpena, and he said he believes that will make it more convenient for people to get rid of their recyclable materials.

Johnson said the recycling board already promotes the recycling services the county has and educates people now to correctly recycle. She said public education should also help boost how many people separate trash and recyclables.

She said much of this year will be dedicated to rounding out the funding process and getting the needed permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to build and operate that close to the airport.

She said construction could begin in 2023 and the new facility could open early in 2024.

“That is our timeline and we aren’t going to stray from it,” Johnson said.

The county owns a large swath of property around where the proposed facility is to be built, but it still lacks infrastructure, such as roads, water and sewer and power. The county is considering investing some of its stimulus money to rectify that.

The commissioners hope that with the new infrastructure, and the recycling center, other businesses could open near and around that area, Gilmet said.

“There is still a lot of work to do out there in that regard though,” he said.