ST. JOHNS — The St. Johns Recycling Center will close in June, the latest Lansing area drop-off center to shutter as costs and other issues limit recycling options for people who don’t have access to curbside pickup.
“I guess we can’t save the earth,” said Emily Hill, a 70-year-old Ovid resident who visited the recycling center, 605 N. Swegles St., on May 6, newspapers in one hand, a bag of tin cans and plastics in the other. “I better get rid of my stuff now.”
The closure slated for June 19 is part of a shortening string of drop-off centers that have closed in more rural communities in recent years.
Sign of the times?
In 2025, Watertown Township and the village of Maple Rapids closed their respective drop-off sites for reasons that included cost and contamination. They both quickly transitioned to curbside recycling that came with costs for their residents – from $7.75 to $15.50 a month in Watertown and less than $5 a month in Maple Rapids.
Recycling advocates like Kerrin O’Brien, executive directive of the Michigan Recycling Coalition, said Hill and other longtime users of the St. Johns recycling center should definitely connect with their elected officials for new drop-off events and other recycling programs.
“As we’ve seen recycling grow up and become a valued and valuable public service, curbside recycling is coming into play, local governments are stepping up to provide these really necessary public services,” she said before talking about the St. Johns closure. “It’s more of an indicator of just the changing nature of these programs, not that these opportunities are going away because, over time, it has been communicated over and over by the public that these are valued public services that they want.”
And waste — the kind you can’t recycle, retool and redevelop — remains a concern. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy reported that there was an approximately 5% increase in solid waste disposed in landfills throughout the state in 2024 — moving from 22.9 million tons in fiscal year 2023 to 24.1 million tons in 2024, according to online annual reports.
While a 2026 EGLE report indicated a 25% recycling rate statewide, communities like St. Johns are still faced with not knowing where they’re going to go or what they’re going to do with their heaps of metals, plastics, newspapers and cardboard once the St. Johns Recycling Center closes.
What now?
Volunteer Jay Henning drove a truckload of recyclables from St. Vincent De Paul on May 6 to the St. Johns dropoff facility. As far as he knows, the charity sends a truckload to the center every day that it’s open. That would be five days a week, which Henning said has the charity floundering for ideas.
“They might have to have a dumpster come in,” Henning said. “They’re going to have to probably do it that way, I guess. The last I knew, they didn’t know how they were going to do it when they close this down.”
The St. Johns Recycling Center isn’t funded by a local government. It began as a recycling effort by the St. Johns Lions Club, a nonprofit organization. The Lions started small, accepting only newspapers in 1978, and moved to its North Swegles location in the early 1980s.
Other materials like cardboard, glass and Styrofoam became acceptable, and the club managed a curbside pickup of recyclables one Saturday a month for about a decade.
Until the late ’90s, Lions Club members did all the work at the recycling center, and, over the years, the sale of recyclable materials has allowed the club to contribute to numerous community projects like the former Clinton Memorial Hospital’s expansion, a Little League baseball field, and a new band shell at a city park.
But club membership has decreased, a subcontractor was hired for the center, and challenges have mounted to include rising costs, not enough donations and declining markets for recyclables.
‘Sad to see it go’
Lions Club President Dean Hartenburg said having to close felt inevitable.
“It was, it really was,” he said. “We’re saddened by it. My entire organization is just really sick about it. It’s kind of been coming for a while and we’ve been talking about it, ‘What are we going to do?’ It just got to the point that … It’s time.”
He’s now focused on selling the recycling center’s equipment and finalizing a lease with an entity that would use the space for storage purposes.
“We’ll be able to maintain a generated income on a monthly basis to be able to provide more services to the community through our nonprofit status,” Hartenburg said.
Kate Neese, Clinton County’s recycling and waste management coordinator, said the center was used heavily by local residents and businesses but has struggled as long as she’s been with the county.
According to her reports, the center collected 197 tons of materials, including Styrofoam, in 2025 and 208 tons in 2024.
“I can’t say we are surprised, but we are sad to see it go,” Neese said. “It’s been a gem in our community for a long time.”
She has noticed other communities struggling with their drop-off sites.
“The City of Grand Ledge called me earlier today because they too are struggling with funding for their drop-off site,” she said.
Grand Ledge City Manager Adam Smith did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment.
“I do think it is important to note that access to curbside recycling subscription has increased over the past several years,” Neese said. “In other words, more haulers are offering curbside recycling collection for a fee in more areas of Clinton County.”
The city of St. Johns offers curbside recycling.
Hartenburg has been urging folks from other communities to visit Clinton County’s website to find out more about recycling options and drop-off sites in East Lansing, Elsie, Fowler and other communities.
There’s also Granger Waste Services’ drop-off site at 16936 Wood Road in Lansing Township.
Granger’s Marketing Director Laurie DeYoung noted that the company offers curbside recycling in some parts of Clinton County but not all. DeYoung said Granger did not have data available indicating the percentage of households in Clinton County or the Lansing area without curbside recycling.
“We are always open to conversations with the communities we serve to explore how we can work in partnership and identify sustainable solutions that help keep communities clean,” she said. “Some municipalities choose to enter into a contract with a single hauler, and in those instances, curbside recycling availability for their residents would be determined by the terms of the contract.”
Contact editor Susan Vela at svela@lsj.com or 248-873-7044. Follow her on Twitter @susanvela.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: St. Johns recycling center is latest drop-off site to close its doors
Reporting by Susan Vela, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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