The village of Lakeview opened a new scrap metal recycling site to join the village’s already existing recycling compactors, while the village of Howard City unveiled its own new recycling compactors. A year and a half ago, two unmanned recycling compactors became operational behind the Lakeview Village Municipal Complex — one for cardboard and the other for paper, plastic, metal, glass and cartons. The compactors are accessible to residents and businesses 24/7 and eliminate contamination, overflowing containers and blowing materials — all problematic issues which resulted in other recycling sites being shuttered throughout the county.
The Lakeview pilot project was the first of its kind in Michigan and was the result of a collaboration between the village, Montcalm County, the county’s Solid Waste Committee and Republic Service. Now that similar recycling compactors are popping up all over the county, Lakeview is trying another pilot program, this time for unwanted scrap metal.
Acceptable scrap metal items include sheet iron (such as appliances and refrigerators with all glass shelves and plastic drawers removed), foundry/short steel, clean auto cast and mixed cast, motor blocks, copper wire and tubing, brass, electric motors, stainless steel, heater cores, lead, radiators and aluminum. All materials should be free of debris, rubber, oil, freon and plastic before being disposed of in the scrap metal dumpster.