Potawatomi Recycling Program

“Recycling Today for a Better Tomorrow”Presentation by:

Andrew Banta & Blake Collins

Mission Statement• To create drop stations across the Nation for recyclable items

including, but not limited to: Plastic Paper/Cardboard Electronics/Cellphones Aluminum

• Locations where stations will be include: Department of Environmental Protection Firelake Discount Foods Grand Casino Complex

Facts About Waste• The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609

pounds per person per year.• The U.S. EPA estimates that paper accounts for nearly 40% of waste in

landfills.• Americans use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year.• Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are

thrown away!• E-waste equals 70% of overall toxic waste. Americans dump phones

containing over $60 million in gold/silver every year

Current Efforts• The Nation has already created small efforts to start a recycling

project Small recycling bins inside enterprises to make recycling more available for

employees Earth Day clean up hosted by the tribe

• While the tribe has started the recycling program, we plan to enlarge and expand the efforts, not just for CPN, but for the whole community

Our Plan• We want to create the major drop and sorting site at the Department

of Environmental Protection• We want to install large recycling containers at Firelake Discount

Foods and The Grand Complex for members of the community to drop their recyclables in• We also want to increase the number of smaller, existing recycling

bins across all tribal complexes• Once a large quantity of recyclables are obtained, we will transport

the materials to a purchaser

Revenue for Recyclables• Recycling is not just good for the environment, but also our wallet

Cell phones are a hot commodity in the recycling world with numerous companies offering money for them; old cell phones range anywhere from 50¢ - $50 per phone

Firelake Discount Foods already sells their cardboard to a business and the increased amount of cardboard will increase the profits

Many scrap yards offer money for aluminum cans

Expenses• For the large recycling bins for the grocery store, The Grand, and

Environment Protection we would need approximately 12 bins• Each large bin costs around $200 - $250• Overall cost for this project would be around $15,000, but over time the profits from the recyclables will pay for themselves

QuestionsAny questions?