News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Brad Mousseau, new manager of the recycling facility on M-32, sorts through recycled batteries on Tuesday. Funding to start construction on Alpena County’s new recycling facility on M-32 is still needed.

ALPENA — The Northeast Michigan Materials Management Authority is currently lining up talks to close the gap of $800,000 in funding needed to start construction on Alpena County’s new recycling facility on M-32 near Airport Road.

The facility, according to Recycling Board Member Nathan Skibbe, will cost about $5.5 million, with about $4.7 million already secured.

Alpena Mayor Cindy Johnson, vice chair of the recycling board, said that the next board meeting on May 23 may have more news about securing the $800,000, but that many different aspects of funding could delay any updates.

“We have a lot of irons in the fire,” Johnson said. “We’re looking at different grants and funding to make this work, but we don’t want to say too much about things that aren’t official yet.”

Skibbe and Johnson said the facility is projected to begin functions by the end of 2025 if everything falls into place accordingly.

The recycling board is also working closely with Alpena cement plant Holcim to start glass recycling with hopes of starting the process by the end of the year.

“We want to provide even better recycling services to the Northeast Michigan community,” Skibbe said. “We’re working with different partners to get this together and hope to help the area.”

Johnson said Holcim will buy bins for residents to place glass products and the recycling workers will collect the items for Holcim to reutilize.

She said the bins Holcim purchases will need to be a certain size for the recycling worker’s truck to work, as the current 20-year-old vehicle is not working well, but she said a new truck is arriving by June and should hit the road within the same month.

“We are excited,” Johnson said. “Our truck right now has been down for about three days and has an electrical thing. They did all the wiring last week and everything was working. And then it wasn’t. As we move into our new facility, to have a dependable truck and to be able to haul materials is a great thing.”

According to Johnson, the next recycling board meeting could include results from Saturday’s Cleanup Day, an annual event that allows Alpena County residents to toss out large items, such as tires, house appliances, and furniture. She said certain items have already been tallied and said Alpena residents brought in about $5,000 worth of garbage to the Saturday event.

Board members will also need to prepare for the E-Waste Cleanup Day on June 1 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. E-Wast Cleanup Day allows all Northeast Michigan residents to recycle desktop computers, printers, fax machines, cell phones, DVD players, and more.

For more information on the June 1 cleanup day, visit facebook.com/alpenarecycling.org or call 989-354-2607.