Michele Ryder, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Archbold Refuse Service, spoke to the Stryker Rotary Club at their regular meeting on Tuesday evening. Archbold Refuse Service is now the refuse and recycling vendor for the village of Stryker. The company is a family owned business which is rare in this type of business. Many of the small refuse and recycling companies have sold out to much larger companies.
Michele explained that all of the recycled materials are pickup up in Stryker and taken to the Werlor Recycling Facility in Defiance. The materials are placed on a conveyor system that cycles the materials through automated equipment as well as manual picking stations to separate the materials into a marketable product. Not all of the separation takes place the first time through, and the conveyor will cycle remaining products through multiple times until complete separation has taken place. Michele said there will be some materials that have been put in recycling containers that is waste and must be taken to the landfill.
When a community has been trained properly they are able to salvage nearly 75% of the materials that are brought in to the recycling center. Michele said some of the items that are salvaged are sold to other countries. She has seen customers from both China and Japan in the facility.
Michele also mentioned the company is forward thinking in they have several trucks that operate on compressed natural gas providing quieter operation and producing less harmful emissions. They have a refueling station for the trucks in Archbold.