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- The City’s Achievement
- Recycling Cart Rollout
- A Cleaner Future for Genesee County
- Michigan’s Recycling Rebound
FLINT, Mich. — Flint’s annual recycling rate has reached a record high, according to a new analysis of data by the city’s Waste Services Department and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
The announcement comes as Michigan continues to celebrate five consecutive years of record-setting improvement in the state’s overall recycling rate, including a new record-high 26% EGLE announced in April based on the most recent data available.
“Every bottle, box and can we recycle brings us one step closer to a sustainable Flint where both the environment and our community thrive,” Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley said during an outdoor news conference at Flint City Hall.
“This analysis by the City of Flint with EGLE reminds everyone how simple and important it is to recycle properly,” Neeley said. “By increasing our recycling tonnage, we not only conserve natural resources but also generate significant economic benefits, supporting thousands of jobs and injecting billions of dollars into Michigan’s statewide economy.”
The City’s Achievement
Flint leaders attribute the city’s achievement of its all-time high recycling rate to the historic 2024 distribution of more than 68,000 free 96-gallon trash carts and 64-gallon recycling carts to more than 34,000 residential households. The rollout marked the first major step in transitioning Flint to a cart-based recycling program that continues to promote the largest recycling push in city history.
The city’s previous recycling program required Flint residents to provide their own waste and recycling receptacles to hold materials at the curbside. The rolling, lidded recycling carts branded with “Flint Strong” logos have successfully increased the amount of materials recycled in Flint from 624 tons per year before the rollout to 2,200 tons annually based on the 2026 analysis — a 253% increase — while expanding recycling access, inspiring more resident participation, reducing neighborhood blight and enhancing safety for sanitation workers with Priority Waste, Flint’s contracted waste hauler.
Recycling Cart Rollout
Before Flint’s recycling cart rollout, the total amount of recyclables deposited annually by Flint residents would barely cover the football field surface within the 11,000-seat Atwood Stadium owned by Kettering University. Now, if the total tonnage of Flint’s recyclables were stacked on the field in Atwood Stadium, the amount would reach a height of nearly 6 feet, data shows.
EGLE provided Flint with a $1 million infrastructure grant to help the city purchase and provide the free recycling carts. National nonprofit The Recycling Partnership awarded a $3.3 million grant to help support Flint’s effort to modernize its waste management program and expand access to recycling.
“State investment, community action, communication and collaboration are driving progress across Michigan’s local recycling systems, as reflected by Flint’s tremendous accomplishment,” said EGLE Environmental Justice Public Advocate Regina Strong.
“Millions of Michiganders have greater access to recycling than ever before, and more material than ever is being successfully reclaimed and repurposed in our growing circular economy.”
By transitioning to cart-based collection, the City of Flint is adopting an industry-recognized best-management practice that has set the city up for immediate and long-term success.
“Setting our city’s new all-time recycling record is a truly historic accomplishment for the City of Flint,” City of Flint Waste Services Coordinator Heather Griffin said.
“We all know recycling helps us keep Michigan beautiful. Now, the City of Flint gets to be a larger part of that beautiful story.”
During the news conference, Genesee County leaders and Flint neighborhood advocates highlighted how the city’s recycling resurgence is driving momentum and support for the proposed development of the new $12.7 million Genesee County Recycling & Education Center. EGLE has allocated $900,000 toward the project. The center’s scale and overall design are based on research and analysis of comparable recycling operations throughout Michigan, as well as anticipated use and participation from Genesee County residents.
A Cleaner Future for Genesee County
The planned facility will be built at 609 Chavez Drive, the site of the former blighted McDonald Dairy property, just west of the I-475 highway corridor. The old industrial plant closed in 2009 and had become an eyesore and a public safety concern.
“Promoting healthy, safe and livable communities is one of the board’s fundamental priorities, and responsible recycling is an important part of that work,” said Genesee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Dale K. Weighill. “Good environmental stewardship helps protect our neighborhoods, preserve our natural resources and contribute to a better quality of life throughout Genesee County.”
Genesee County plans to transform the long-vacant, deteriorated industrial property into a modern Recycling & Education Center that will provide residents with better access to safe, responsible recycling services while creating opportunities for environmental education, proponents say.
Genesee County has been providing recycling drop-off days for residents in a parking lot at Mott Community College, less than a mile away, and the service has a waiting list of more than 3,000 residents hailing from every community within Genesee County.
The new facility will also enable the county to begin offering hands-on interactive educational experiences for residents and students, a service the county has historically delivered in local classrooms through a partnership with the Flint River Watershed Coalition.
The project is largely funded by the solid waste system — not residents. Approximately 88% of the project’s costs will be funded through increased solid waste fees paid by waste haulers using county landfills, significantly reducing the direct financial burden on Genesee County residents.
Michigan’s Recycling Rebound
EGLE research shows Michigan has steadily increased its recycling rate from 14.25% before 2019 to over 25% in FY 2024, and is now 26% for FY 2025. EGLE forecasts that Michigan is on track to achieve the state’s goal of a 30% recycling rate by 2029.
From fiscal year 2024 to 2025, Michiganders increased their recycling to a total tonnage of 800,940 tons. Michiganders recycled more than 60,000 tons of glass, 577,000 tons of paper and paper products, and 41,000 tons of plastics and plastic products.
This equates to every person in Michigan recycling nearly 158 pounds of cardboard boxes, milk cartons, soup cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars, food waste and other recyclable materials over a 12-month span, EGLE researchers found.
The combined total of recyclables is the equivalent of the weight of 10 Mackinac Bridges and would fill the football stadiums of the Detroit Lions, University of Michigan and Michigan State University, plus fill the 125-acre Detroit Zoo.
EGLE leaders attribute the state’s recycling success to funding for infrastructure and technical support for projects that increase access to recycling services, along with the national award-winning “Know It Before You Throw It” education campaign featuring the Recycling Raccoon Squad.
The improved recycling performance is helping Michigan advance the goals of the MI Healthy Climate Plan, commissioned by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as a road map to a sustainable, prosperous, healthy, equitable, carbon-neutral Michigan economy by 2050. Carbon neutrality is the global science-based benchmark for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the most devastating and costly impacts of climate change.
Recycling in Michigan supports 72,500 jobs and contributes more than $17 billion a year to the state’s economy, according to an analysis by EGLE’s NextCycle Michigan Initiative.