A regional recycling plan would make Midland double its curbside pickups, at up to $500,000 a year

MIDLAND, Mich. — A regional waste plan being written to meet state law would require the City of Midland to pick up curbside recycling twice a month instead of once, a change the city manager says could cost $450,000 to $500,000 a year.

The requirement is part of the draft Heartland Materials Management Plan, which would replace county-by-county solid-waste plans in Midland, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Isabella, Mecosta, Ogemaw and Osceola counties. Chris Wolff, a consultant with Resource Recycling Systems, walked the Midland County Board of Commissioners through the draft at its Oct. 6 meeting, the Midland Daily News reported. The board made no decision.

Under the draft, any community with more than 5,000 residents would have to offer curbside recycling at least twice a month beginning Jan. 1, 2028. In Midland County, only two places clear that bar, according to the Daily News: the City of Midland, which collects once a month, and Larkin Charter Township, which already meets the standard.

City Manager Brad Kaye told commissioners a second monthly pickup could add $450,000 to $500,000 a year to the city’s costs. He also noted that Midland County holds about a quarter of the eight-county region’s population, and the city alone about an eighth, the paper reported.

The plans trace to Part 115 of Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, which the Legislature rewrote to require counties to move from landfill-capacity planning to plans built around recycling and composting. The Heartland committee’s website says the state recycling rate has climbed to 25%, with goals of 30% by 2029 and 45% over the long run.

The draft is not final. It needs approval from each county board, a majority of the municipalities in the eight counties and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, according to the committee. The plan is due to the state by July 2027.

That leaves time for Midland residents and businesses to weigh in on whether a doubled pickup schedule is worth the price. A public hearing is set for 10 a.m. Oct. 23 in the ballroom of the Doherty Hotel & Conference Center, 604 N. McEwan St., in Clare. Written comments are due Oct. 30 through the committee’s online survey.

Sources:
Midland Daily News, “New recycling requirement could cost Midland $500K annually,” Oct. 6, 2026, https://www.ourmidland.com/community/article/heartland-materials-management-plan-midland-impact-22465452.php
Heartland Counties Materials Management Plan, public comment page and timeline, https://www.heartlandmmp.org/
Photo: Gogerr, “A Blue Recycling Bin with Wheels,” Dec. 27, 2025, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-corrected; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Blue_Recycling_Bin_with_Wheels.jpg

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