Re-cycled: How old recycling bins are helping local nonprofit continue its mission

MARION, Iowa (KCRG) — An eastern Iowa nonprofit is helping divert Marion’s old recycling bins from landfills.

Last fall, the City of Marion switched to an automated recycling service.

But the switch meant the city would have thousands of old bins out of commission.

”That’s just a lot of waste,” said Matt Tielebein, Marion Solid Waste and Recycling Manager.

So it partnered with Iowa Waste Exchange to find a way to give the bins a new life.

“To divert all of that waste from the landfill and actually make it usable, it ended up being about 30,000 pounds that they were able to recycle,” said Tielebein.

While most of the bins went to plastics recycler, Cedar Poly in Tipton, around 100 went to Chain Reaction Bike Hub in Cedar Rapids.

“There’s so many of them spread all over the shop here, so some of them are actually still being used for recycling purposes, so at the workbench is you know… if there’s metal to be recycled, there’s tires and tubes to be recycled,” said Evan Schmidtke, Chain Reaction Bike Hub Executive Director. “There’s a giant shelf with a bunch of spare parts and you know, back stock of things that will eventually either be sold or put on a bike.”

Schmidtke said sustainability is one of the main goals at the nonprofit.

The bins saved the organization around two thousand dollars, allowing those funds to go towards other needs.

“Just going to a Home Depot or somewhere and buying some of these storage bins are not cheap. And as a nonprofit, anywhere that we can upcycle and use things that are already kind of out in the world it benefits us and benefits the folks that are getting rid of them,” said Schmidtke.

Helping continue to make bikes more accessible for everyone in the community.

“If we can make sure that the bikes are accessible by piecing them together and still diverting a material, some landfill that’s a win-win for everyone involved,” said Schmidtke.

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