As Earth Day approaches, we ask the question: do we recycle correctly? As part of the weekly series MichMash, host Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben sat down with Conan Smith from the Michigan Environmental Council. They discuss how we could recycle better. 

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In this episode:

• Proposals to expand Michigan’s bottle bill
• What is “wish-cycling?”
• How vape pens are affecting recycling goals

Michigan’s waste stream shows the state annually sends to landfills at least $130 million in cans and bottles with a 10-cent returnable deposit, according to the Michigan Sustainable Business Forum.

Smith says this is one of the reasons why an expansion of Michigan’s bottle bill is needed. The expansion would allow for easier ways for people to return and deposit bottles instead of just recycling them in their bins. 

“On average, if you take your tin can and you put it in the recycling, that tin can is probably going to be some other type of aluminum product,” Smith said. “If you take that same can and you return it for your ten cents, it’s going to become a tin can six times every year.”

Smith said although it’s not bad to recycle by simply using your recycling bin, it is more efficient to deposit for ten cents for better usage.  

More from WDET:

• Why Gen Z is gravitating toward vaping and e-cigarettes
• Why it’s time to reform or repeal Michigan’s bottle return law
• Changes could be coming to the way Michigan recycles

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About 30% of the food supply in the U.S. goes to waste, according to the USDA. Most of the time, food scraps end up in the sink or the garbage. But there’s something else you can do with your food scraps. 

Depending on where you live, it might be a program in your city, something that’s similar to recycling or trash collection. We’re talking about composting — the process of turning old food and yard waste into nutrient-rich compost.

Bill Whitley is the president of Spurt Industries. His company manages a multi-city composting program that includes operating a large compost yard in Rochester Hills. Spurt was hired by a municipal corporation called the Southeastern Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority (SOCRRA) that manages waste and recycling for 12 communities in Oakland County. The arrangement started March 31. 

Michael Edwards is the CEO and co-founder of Midtown Composting. They’ve been operating a compost service in the Midtown neighborhood since 2015.

Whitley and Edwards both joined The Metro on Tuesday to discuss the different options available to metro Detroit residents looking to compost at home.

We also asked listeners:

“What are you doing to get your garden beds ready? Does compost make it into the mix?”

John from Detroit said: “ I want to shout out to all my east side composters. We compost at Freedom Growers, we compost up at Sanctuary Farms, which is Mack and Lake View, and then the ECN, Eastside Community Network, has a composting situation there. And we are trying to convince the city to go with curbside composting sooner than later.”

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Tuesday, April 8:

• Detroit’s oldest choir has a new director
• Investigation probes unprecedented number of journalists killed in Gaza
• ‘Jazz-A-Bet’ book bridges music history and children’s literature

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.