Greatest Person: A Greendale Man's Road to Recycling

When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker completely cut the recycling budget at the state level a Greendale man and a task force came together to bring back about 50 percent of the funds cut from the budget.

Jim Birmingham stumbled upon the recycling business over 30 years ago. After his time in the military Birmingham went to school to study commercial art and advertisement. While in school he started working part-time at a recycling company in the 70s.  After two years with them he bought the company under Birmingham Recycling.

For the past couple of decades Birmingham has owned, worked and consulted a variety of companies. As a consultant he travels around the country advising companies on recycling methods. Birmingham says that in order for recycling programs to work people must reuse, reduce and recycle.

“I always educated myself in the newest recycling entities,” Birmingham said.

In the last few years Birmingham has been consulting companies and pushing for construction demolition recycling in places around the country. Cement, wood, plastic and cardboard can all be recycled. It can then also be sold to companies to bring in revenue for a recycling facility, according to Birmingham.

He considers himself to be retired, however, Birmingham says he keeps busy with recycling consulting, owning a popular hip coffee shop, and as a Greendale Village trustee.

His latest endeavor involves sitting on a recycling advising committee for Walker.

Initially Walker planned to cut all recycling from the budget to help the state’s $3 billion deficit. Instead a group made up of recycling professionals around the state was formed.

As part of the group Birmingham was able to reinstate about 50 to 60 percent of the cut recycling funds, but are not done. The group is hoping to reinstate 100 percent of the subsidized funds for the next two years and design a plan where communities will no longer need the subsidized money from the state.

Birmingham said that many communities had already included that state recycling funds into their budgets. Cutting the funds would make it difficult for some communities to continue recycling services, particularly in northern Wisconsin where there are smaller communities that heavily rely on those funds.

Birmingham says that a good way to save money and make revenue would be to have communities collaborate recycling services. Outagamie County has one materials recycling facility that serves about 10 other counties and it seems to working out for them, according to Birmingham.

Birmingham is also working with the group to ban more items from landfills.

“The less you use a recycling facility the more it cost to have,” he said.

In Connecticut Birmingham said that landfills charge $170 a ton, while in Wisconsin landfills only charge $30 a ton. People might be more inclined to recycle if it’s cheaper. It will also bring revenue to a community if people recycle and separate materials because those recycled materials can then be sold to companies.

“When people ask me if I am a tree hugger I say I really am a tree hugger, but it’s got to make money/business sense when it comes to recycling,” Birmingham said.