Novi Keeps Green with Recycling Center

April is National Keep America Beautiful Month, and Novi is doing its part to keep the U.S. green by encouraging residents to recycle.

The Novi Recycling Center, located on Lee BeGole Drive off of 11 Mile Road near the Field Services Complex, offers residents a place to drop off recyclable materials quickly and easily.

"We feel it's a valuable service to offer to our residents and businesses to help to do our part to preserve the environment and reuse as many materials as we possibly can to keep material out of the waste stream that would normally go into a landfill," said Rob Hayes, the Novi director of public services and city engineer.

The center was recently re-done to make it a single-stream center, which means residents can put all of their recyclables into the same bin without having to sort them first.

Public Services has also exchanged the old bins for bigger ones, so the city can now accept a lot more recycling. Some of the bins also have side-doors, which allow better access for residents with disabilities.

"It gets a lot of use," Hayes said. "Every Monday morning when we show up here, the bins are overflowing, sometimes to the point where material is on the ground. And it's our job to police that and keep it looking good."

Once the bins are full, Novi Public Services calls Duncan Disposal to haul the materials over to the Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County, or RRRASOC, in Southfield. There the materials are sorted and recycled. 

In 2011, the Novi Recycling Center collected 700 tons of recyclables.

The Recycling Center accepts the following materials:

• Magazines and catalogs
• Newspapers
• Paper
• Plastic containers #1, #2 and #4-7
• Cloudy #2 plastic
• Glass bottles and jars
• Household metals
• Boxboard
• Cardboard

Hayes said that cardboard is the most recycled material in Novi.

The Center does not accept electronic waste such as computers or cell phones. Those materials and other hazardous waste can be dropped off during Novi's Hazardous Waste Day every fall.

The Recycling Center is open from dawn to dusk every day (except some holidays).

Future improvements

Hayes said the Novi's Recycling Center became a full-fledged drop-off center in 2008, but it did have a more abbreviated use before then.

Novi does not have a citywide contract for curbside recycling, but some subdivisions in the city work with six different licensed haulers to offer their own pick-up. 

Hayes said once the city has grown more, the government might be able to offer a single contractor.

"I think eventually we'll get to having a single licensed hauler, but really until the city is completely built out, that may not happen. I'm just speculating there," Hayes said.

The Recycling Center is also looking to accept additional materials in the future.

"There is a movement to accept different types of Styrofoam, however we're not set up at our facility yet to accept Styrofoam. That could be added to our acceptable list here shortly," Hayes said.

In May, the department will be celebrating National Public Works Week. The theme this year is Environmental Sustainability. Hayes said they'll be showcasing the Recycling Center with an open house on May 23 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.