West Monroe Recycling Center expands to new facility

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - The West Monroe Recycling Center is moving to an expanded facility.

According to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, millions of pounds of trash end up in landfills each year with very little being reused or recycled. The West Monroe recycling center is hoping to change that.

The expanded West Monroe recycling center has been in the works for over a year. The new facility is possible through an EPA grant that was awarded to West Monroe last year. The facility is equipped with a larger bailer along with other new equipment.

The facility foreman, Michael Broussard, says he’s excited for what that could bring for the future.

He says, “Within six years, we outgrew our facility, simple as that. Now we have this much larger facility. We have the ability to take in more material and process it faster and get it to our end users. All of this stays out of the landfill, and it stays in America.”

Broussard also says none of it would be possible without the support of the community.

He says, “We have a lot of people tell us, ‘Oh, my daughter pushed me into this, or my mother’s very much into this, and she’s pushed the whole family into it.’ So, we have almost generations of people that have been sort of enjoying recycling. The response has been really incredible. Surprising to say the least.”

Along with the new warehouse, the recycling center will be allowing for school field trips once the facility is up and running to teach the next generation about the importance of recycling.

The facility will be open for business February 10 and is located on Grantham Avenue in West Monroe. The Lincoln Street location will no longer be a drop-off location once the new facility is open.

The West Monroe Recycling Center will be open for drop-off by the public on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Items that can be dropped off include plastics 1 and 2, cardboard, aluminum, metal, foil and glass.