At age 14, Wes Peterman was spending his Saturdays tugging scrap metal from tangled barnyard piles and hauling it to the scrapyard. He’s been recycling ever since.

In community college, Peterman bested 500 peers in a business plan competition, pitching an e-waste recycling business. His professor took him aside. “I think you really have something here,” the professor told Peterman. “You’re clearly passionate about it. You should use that money to create an LLC, get a bank account and see what you can do with this.”

After 20 years of dealing with discarded stuff, Peterman is still relentlessly passionate about recycling in rural, central Michigan. “We try to show people what a circular economy looks like,” Peterman said. “If I can show them that I can save money and create jobs at the same time, it’s truly a win-win for everyone.”

Peterman’s Resourceful Recycling business has grown by leaps and bounds, expanding into pallet recycling, dumpster rentals, cardboard recycling, dual-stream, single-stream and more. It diverted nearly five million pounds of waste from the landfill last year, up from 3.5 million pounds in 2024.

Eighteen people now work in the business every day, including the recent addition of a fleet manager. “It kind of turned into a full-serve waste reduction company,” Peterman said.

A Resourceful Recycling tech refurbishes old tablets and computers, re-selling them at about half the price of new technology. Pallets can be sold back to distributors or turned into mulch if poor quality.

When the pandemic disrupted distribution, Peterman started re-selling pallet boards directly to his neighbors, who use the boards to make chicken coops, plant stands, beds and wall paneling. Pallet boards are affordable—and they have that “that cool old barn Hollywood look,” Peterman said.

Working with Ashley Connelly of Lionbear Ventures, Resourceful Recycling has leveraged grants from Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to test and build out such circular economies in central Michigan: in 2024, the company joined the state’s NextCycle Michigan accelerator program.

After six months of coaching through this EGLE program, NextCycle cohort members pitched their best ideas to industry leaders. Resourceful Recycling earned the 2024 People’s Choice award with plans for a 24/7 public drop-off center that takes not just cardboard and pop cans, but also materials that can’t be typically recycled curbside, such as paint, tires, old televisions and computers.

Resourceful Recycling is the only business twice selected for a NextCycle cohort. In 2025, Peterman again won the People’s Choice award, following a live pitch to industry leaders for curbside food and yard waste recycling in Shiawassee County.

“I knew very little about food waste at that point, so NextCycle helped me develop my business plan and helped me run some pilots with local businesses,” Peterman said. Resourceful Recycling collected kitchen scraps like carrot scrapings and potato peels from Memorial Healthcare, Shiawassee County’s largest employer.

“We diverted more than 1,000 pounds in one week from their kitchen,” Peterman said. “This food goes to a composting yard, which is right down the road, which has three or four employees running that yard, and then next spring, when you guys are looking to do landscaping, you can buy compost that came from your food.”

Resourceful Recycling is rolling out its food waste program in 2026, with several clients already signed on. They’ll also be conducting “waste walks,” helping clients identify materials they might be throwing away that could be re-used.

Local uses for recycled materials are especially important in rural areas, as the cost of transportation is the biggest expense for recyclers. “We’re creating this extremely dense route,” Peterman said. “We don’t handle it like a typical company. We pull up in a box truck, and while we’re there, we ask, ‘Do you have cardboard bales for us to pick up? Do you have e-waste? We’re truly a one-stop shop.”

Recycling creates six jobs for every job created by landfilling the same amount of material, Peterman said. “It’s keeping materials and jobs local. We drop off cardboard, and there’s 12 people there sorting stuff every day, and trucks going in and out. That’s what a circular economy looks like.”

Peterman started the business in a foreclosed building once owned by his great-grandfather. Within two years, he expanded into a 15,000-square-foot building for pallet recycling. Just last year, the company’s new headquarters opened in a renovated building just off an S-curve on Highway 57 (Main Street) in Chesaning.

Resourceful Recycling’s new home is designed to be welcoming, a far cry from a smelly redemption center or dingy landfill drop-off. “You walk in, and it’s very bright, granite countertops, really advanced,” Peterman said. “We have computers on display that we sell, and next door is a large glass garage door, if you have drop-offs.”

Their bright new home has brought more neighbors out to learn about the business. “The community support has been unbelievable,” Peterman said. “Some people want to come in and say, ‘Thank you for cleaning up this eyesore in the middle of the entryway to our town.’ The other people who come in say, ‘What can I drop off here?’”