CHASSELL – Chassell Township is now offering cardboard recycling at its waste transfer station at the Chassell Township Garage, increasing Copper Country residents’ opportunities to create second lives for boxes that would otherwise clog landfills.

“Anybody can bring cardboard,” said Lynn Gierke, Chassell Township Deputy Clerk and a member of the Copper Country Recycling Initiative steering committee.

“It’s self-serve, but we do have an attendant there.”

Gierke said the garage and the new cardboard baler are located next to the Chassell Volunteer Fire Department and are open Wednesdays 1-7 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

The CCRI considers cardboard the most cost-effective recyclable and the foundation for more extensive future recycling efforts. Gierke said the Chassell program helps fulfill the CCRIs goal of convenient access to cardboard recycling for all Copper Country residents.

According to Joseph Youngman of the Chassell Township Department of Public Works, the facility is the first of what CCRI and Houghton County hope to be several satellite cardboard recycling locations, after the recent opening of the Houghton County’s new recycling center in Atlantic Mine earlier this month.

“I saw the DEQ had the grant application and took it to the township,” said Gierke, explaining how the township tied in to the county grant.

“We want it to be a model for other townships and communities,” she added.

Gierke said Eagle Harbor Township also took advantage of a Department of Environmental Quality grant to purchase a cardboard baler and has been accepting cardboard since the end of summer.

Carastar, the same hauling company that picks up cardboard at most local grocery stores, is hauling Chassell’s cardboard to a recycling facility, she said.

Gierke said it is important residents don’t mix plastic, food waste or other improper items in with the cardboard. Guidelines are posted at the garage and will soon be posted on coppercountryrecyclereuse.com.

“People have to be more conscious of what’s acceptable,” she said.

“That’s why education is such a big component of the grant.”