Центр переработки отходов DJ Root в Овоссо закроется 30 сентября из-за новых федеральных правил

OWOSSO — After more than a decade of operation, the DJ Root Recycling Center will close its doors Sept. 30. The decision comes after the Shiawassee Health and Wellness Board voted Aug. 24 to shut down operations at the start of the 2027 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1 in the state of Michigan. The center is connected to the SHW building at 1555 Industrial Drive in Owosso. “Our leadership is very sorry to see DJ Root go,” said SHW CEO Ryan Painter. “If we could flip the switch and make it last, we would and I think that’s why we’ve spent so much time and effort on it. I’m sad we couldn't make it come to fruition the way we wanted.” DJ Root is a free recycling service that processes several tons of material each month, according to Painter. The center is operated by four SHW staff members and employs about 12 individuals who receive services through SHW. In years past, Medicaid paid the salaries of those workers. Painter said multiple factors led to the decision to close DJ Root, starting with a change in federal regulations aimed at preventing conflicts of interest among Medicaid providers. The regulation, known as Conflict-Free Access and Planning, was first announced in 2014 but was not enforced in Michigan until last year. The regulation, Painter said, is designed to ensure the people authorizing services are not the same people providing those services. In other words, individuals receiving services through the state’s public mental health system must get their assessment, service plan and case management from one organization, such as SHW, and receive the services outlined in that plan from a different organization. To comply with the regulation, SHW shut down its Employment and Skill Building (ESB) program Dec. 31. The ESB program helped adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities develop skills to live and work independently. The program provided therapeutic employment opportunities, including work at DJ Root. With the ESB program no longer operating, Painter said SHW cannot use Medicaid funding to keep DJ Root afloat as it once did. “Before, we were leveraging medicaid dollars to provide (the employment opportunity with DJ Root), but without doing that, now suddenly it's sucking the resources in rather than pushing them out,” Painter said. For the past two years, Painter said, SHW leadership has looked for ways to keep DJ Root open. A feasibility study, paid for by the Cook Family Foundation, explored the possibility of running the recycling center as a for-profit organization, but Painter said the costs were too high. Painter noted that the center would go from a free recycling service to one that drives a profit and requires a consistent stream of customers to pay for a recycling service. That would require a full-time sales position and additional staff to run the center. Painter said the estimated expenses added up quickly, reaching more than half a million dollars. “Right now the only reason it ran was because the staff was free because Medicaid was paying for it,” Painter said. “Its easy to run a business when you have no staff costs and the building is paid for because Medicaid pays for the clinical building and the (DJ Root) warehouse is attached. “We didn’t really have much in the way of costs, but now we actually have to run it like a business, which means we would have to bring on a handful of staff and it would have to be 100% self-supporting.” Painter said SHW applied for multiple grants, including a $1 million grant from EGLE to help get things off the ground, but had no luck securing funds. Fundraising, although an option, was hard to justify given the low number of participants, he said. “(SHW treats) around 2,000 consumers per year, give or take,” Painter said. “There are 12 at DJ Root. Can I justify me and my staff using all this time and effort to fundraise to keep a recycling center alive because the community likes it, for the benefit of 12 people? When the other 1,980+ don’t get that same level of attention or care?” Painter said his team is working to find new jobs for those 12 individuals, noting they can work just about anywhere as long as local companies are willing to take them on. Painter said that has been a challenge in the past due to the involvement of a job coach or behavioral and health issues. “Our focus has always been on providing a medicaid billable service to consumers,” Painter said. “Recycling was only ever a vehicle to do that and it doesn't have to be the only one. We have other consumers doing other things. We’re going to do everything we can to find other employers who are willing to take them on under the same terms that we had when we operated DJ Root ourselves.” Painter said there could be an opportunity down the road to partner with a nonprofit or local business by renting the space to them and creating a different type of therapeutic employment opportunity than a recycling center. “That would be a win-win for everything involved,” he said. Painter said the possibility also exists that DJ Root could someday reopen “with the right partner,” meaning SHW would provide the space and collaborate with a local recycling company. For an alternative recycling solution in Shiawassee County, Painter recommended the nonprofit, volunteer-led Greater Laingsburg Recyclers at 7500 Woodbury Road in Laingsburg.