How It Works

 

KALIX opened the Recycling Center in 1994 in order to provide employment opportunities for people with disabilities.  It has been a successful venture, employing people to unload customer cars, sort recyclable commodities, empty confidential document bins at customer sites, shred confidential documents, disassemble computers into components, sort books, sell & ship books, and tear pages out of books for recycling as paper.  

Over the years, we have learned a few things… about saving the earth, price fluctuations in recycling markets, and meeting quality standards.  Sorting is the single most important step in recycling – whether items are sorted initially by the customer or sorted later in the warehouse – inadequate sorting translates to contamination that prevents conversion to new products and instead results in materials headed to the landfill. 

Most recycling programs are operated by a government entity which has the ability to impose mandatory recycling, charge fees, and/or subsidize costs with taxpayer funds.  Because we are a private business, our program is limited to commodities which we can sell at a price that covers all or at least most of our costs on average.  We don’t have enough volume or outside funding to offer curbside pickup or single-stream recycling (where the customer dumps everything in a single bin and it gets sorted later).  Participation is based on the community’s willingness to voluntarily go to the extra effort of saving, sorting, and delivering recyclables.  We appreciate our sponsors for funding the token program that offers incentives to our customers, and we especially appreciate your commitment to doing your part in taking care of our planet! 

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