Cascade engineering to manufacture trash and recycling carts, coming to all Flint households this fall

Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley today joined with Genesee County state legislators and leaders with the Michigan Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and The Recycling Partnership to announce the City of Flint has selected Michigan-based Cascade Engineering to produce 96-gallon trash carts and 64-gallon recycling carts that will be distributed for free this fall to 30,000 residential households.

“Today’s announcement is the next step in transitioning Flint to a cart-based recycling program that will promote the largest recycling push in our city’s history,” Mayor Neeley said during a press conference at the Flint Service Center where examples of the City’s dark gray trash containers and blue recycling receptacles adorned with “Flint Strong” logos were on display.

Also in attendance at the event were Cascade Engineering Sales Manager Brian Miller, Michigan Environmental Justice Public Advocate Regina Strong, The Recycling Partnership Vice President of Grants and Community Development Rob Taylor, and Flint recycling citizen-advocates Renee Harvey and Emily Stetson.

Flint’s current recycling program requires residents to provide their own waste and recycling receptacles to contain materials at the curbside. The new carts will be owned by the City of Flint and distributed for residential use.

The new rolling, lidded recycling carts are projected to increase the amount of materials recycled in Flint from 624 tons per year to 5,400 tons per year – a 750% increase – as well as improve recycling access, inspire more resident participation, and enhance safety for sanitation workers.

Benefits of the new carts cited by Mayor Neeley include:

• The City-owned carts will help sustain or even lower costs over time relative to an un-carted program.
• Carts reduce litter, help control rodent and pest populations, and enhance community cleanliness.
• Carts make recycling and garbage service easier for Flint residents.

The Flint cart campaign roll-out features multiple funding sources. The city is receiving a $1 million EGLE grant to help the city purchase and provide the trash and recycling carts at no additional cost to Flint residents.

“Expanding and modernizing Flint’s recycling infrastructure is a key goal of EGLE and the State of Michigan,” Strong said. “Our department’s $1 million EGLE grant is an investment in the City of Flint that will help all residents across the City have convenient and equitable access to recycling opportunities.”

In addition, together with its partners, including Midland-based Dow Inc., national nonprofit The Recycling Partnership is mobilizing voluntary investment to support communities like Flint in modernizing their programs and expanding access to recycling.

The Partnership’s $3.3 million grant to Flint is one of nearly 400 programs and facilities the organization has granted over the past decade. Through The Recycling Partnership, Dow is donating 1.2 million pounds of plastic resin to help manufacture the roughly 70,000 new household waste and recycling carts coming to Flint this fall, which Cascade will manufacture according to national best practices to ensure durability for 10 or more years.

By transitioning to cart-based collection, the City of Flint will be adopting an industry-recognized best management practice which will set the city up for immediate and long-term success. Of the 821 cities in the U.S. with populations over 50,000 people, 78% are carted. The majority of programs are carted because it is the most efficient and most cost-effective way to collect waste/recycling at the curb.

Cities across Michigan and the entire U.S. have moved to lidded carts for garbage and recycling because manual collection has become increasingly dangerous and expensive.

“Prominent national and regional haulers have recently stated they will no longer bid on municipal contracts that are not carted,” The Partnership’s Taylor said. “Deploying city-owned waste and recycling carts will help keep Flint’s operational costs manageable in the near term and for years to come.”

The Recycling Partnership has provided cart grants to local governments since 2014, working with cities as small as 400 homes to cities as large as 200,000 households. The Partnership has teamed with EGLE to deploy recycling carts in more than 30 communities across Michigan. Together, these efforts have placed 245,000 recycling carts into service in communities serving a combined population of over 1 million Michiganders.

As a woman-owned and the only Michigan-based recycling and trash cart container manufacturer, Cascade has rolled out over 40 million trash and recycling containers nationwide, including over 4 million receptacles in the State of Michigan. 

“Cascade is excited to be a part of the City of Flint’s curbside trash and recycling upgrades,” Miller said. “Roll carts have a life-cycle of 10-20 years or more,” Miller added, “and these new carts will be a part of the Flint community for decades to come, contributing to blight control around the City as well as contributing to the State of Michigan’s recycling goals well into the future.”