NextCycle Michigan will be featured during three breakout sessions on May 12 during the 2022 MRC Conference.

1. EGLE LISTENING SESSION ON FUNDING PRIORITIES
   Matt Flechter, Michigan EGLE

   The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) supports infrastructure and market development, and NextCycle Michigan through the Renew Fund passed by the Legislature in 2018. Projects aimed at developing additional collection, processing, and marketing capacity, as well as creating and strengthening new connections to commodity markets are key to growing recycling efforts in Michigan. Join this facilitated discussion to build collective understanding about development needs in Michigan that will inform EGLE funding priorities in 2023 and beyond.

2. PILOTING A COMPOST DROP SITE IN THE CITY
   Claire Dion, City of Ferndale

   The City of Ferndale launched a one-year organics collection pilot program in November 2021 with MICROS funding through NextCycle Michigan. The program includes residential, commercial, and municipal participants utilizing various drop-off locations for a variety of organic materials. Learn about the details of the program, such as how equity was considered in design and how they managed the challenges that face small scale drop-offs. Explore data collected from 400 residential participants, see examples of educational materials, and hear the results from the participants' surveys. Hear about the future of the program and plans to expand composting to the whole community.

3. PROJECT ACCELERATION: TAKE YOUR INITIATIVE TO THE NEXT LEVEL
   Bryce Hesterman & Special Guest from NextCycle Michigan Program 

   It’s time to move beyond the talking and into the doing. Join this workshop-focused session on accelerating your initiatives to be implemented, investable, and have significant impact.  This session allows participants to explore some of the models used in the NextCycle Michigan Innovation Challenge Track programming to help ensure the new business start-ups, program enhancements, and infrastructure development projects are on the right track for success.

more information at MichiganRecycles.org.