How Benton Harbor Recycled 1.7 Million Water Bottles During Crisis

In 2021, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services began distributing free bottled water and water filters to residents of Benton Harbor in response to the city’s water crisis caused by lead-contaminated service lines.

As of November 2023, more than 165,000 cases of bottled water had been supplied to residents. The effort was a necessary solution to meet Benton Harbor residents’ immediate need for safe drinking water, while city and state officials secured funding to replace the water lines. But it created another problem: millions of single-use plastic bottles piling up in homes and landfills. 

The sheer volume of the single-use plastic waste was overwhelming – the city needed a recycling solution that would prioritize accessibility and ease of use for the community. Enter Schupan — partnering with the state of Michigan and the City of Benton Harbor, MiSBF member Schupan contributed $33,500 in free services to collect and recycle nearly 1.7 million water bottles. 

Streamlining Recycling for Communities

When bottled water goes from a luxury product to the only way to access clean water, the volume of containers used quickly overwhelms any existing waste management infrastructure. 

Organizing the community to collect these materials for recycling can be costly and labor-intensive. Residents often need to bring their containers in plastic bags, which must be emptied by workers or volunteers on site before heading to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). 

Schupan solves this problem with a unique approach.

“We have the capabilities to process bagged material. Most MRFs do not have that capability,” says Jessica Loding, Chief Sustainability Officer at Schupan Recycling, “We have a special machine that rips the bag open so it alleviates volunteers or staff or the residents themselves having to come step onto a stair system, empty the bags. That way you just take the bag, drop it off, throw it in the trailer and move on.”

Overcoming Recycling Challenges

This isn’t the first time Schupan has helped communities access recycling services during a water crisis. In 2016 and 2017, they partnered with the City of Flint to collect and recycle 5.4 million containers, contributing $84,000 of free services. 

Even so, every city has its own unique challenges. Unlike Flint, Benton Harbor didn’t have curbside recycling infrastructure. As a result, while the volume of containers was less visible, the absence of recycling awareness made organizing collections challenging in different ways.

The most profound obstacle to recycling millions of single-use plastics wasn’t technical — it was getting buy-in from the city’s stakeholders and aligning on expectations. Seemingly simple issues like where to park the trailer for collection turned out to be more complicated than anticipated.

“A lot of people with a lot of perspectives on what should and shouldn’t happen… is the biggest challenge,” says Loding, “It’s working through those differences and being able to do that in a community that has never had recycling available to them before.”

Despite these challenges, Loding is proud of the industry partners and community actors who came together to support Benton Harbor residents. 

“I don’t think that there are a lot of industries and stakeholders that could come together as quickly as we all did to create the momentum and ultimate impact that we were able to make. And I think that’s really incredible and a testament to everybody involved from beginning, middle to end.”

>> Related: How Abonmarche Helped Benton Harbor Replace Lead Lines On Schedule and Under Budget