The Town of Normal should revisit the recycling program for apartment complexes and multi-unit developments, according to Mayor Chris Koos.
"A lot of their recycle bins are not being respected and are contaminated with garbage which kills the whole load in a lot of situations," said Koos.
The evidence, he said, is anecdotal, so the town will likely study the issue next spring, but there is concern. He said he has talked with one of the waste companies and there is not a consensus whether it is being used.
“Is this policy working? If not, we’ll have to take a look at it,” said Koos.
The ordinance that started the apartment complex recycling program was passed in July 2018 and took effect the next year. Koos said the program cannot be mandatory — it must have willing participation to succeed and that could mean more education and awareness effort is needed.
"We can be a partner in trying to make it work, but primarily it's going to be student government who wanted this recycling at off-campus housing. It would be very easy for the university to send an email blast a couple times a semester saying, 'Don't forget, recycle,' things like that," said Koos.
When the program was first implemented, the Ecology Action Center coordinated an outreach campaign in partnership with the ISU Sustainability Office. There were educational flyers and posters made available to rental companies. Crews hand-delivered and posted flyers at many rental buildings. There was targeted social media promotions running simultaneously. It corresponded with the rise of the pandemic that distracted from the message, said Ecology Action Center director Michael Brown.
“I agree there needs to be regular routine educational efforts, and I think the responsibility falls to a collective group — rental companies, Town of Normal, ISU, and EAC,” said Brown.
A statewide task force on recycling contamination spurred the development of uniform recycling education standardized information in 2018. Local waste haulers participated. The material is supposed to help reduce confusion and minimize what Brown called a growing contamination problem.
“As about 95% of the ISU student population is in-state. The longer this standardized information is used, we should see an improvement in contamination reduction as this should be the same message they are getting in their home communities too,” he said, adding there also is some room for improvement in the program itself, and in the controlling ordinance.
“For example, our outreach crews learned early on that compliance with the ordinance might be just one recycling cart for a large multi-unit building that might have four large dumpsters for trash,” said Brown.
The center put out a report in July noting that large corporations and residential recycling accessibility have contributed to growth in the amount recycled.
“While the waste generated in McLean County in 2022 grew, the amount recycled grew even more to a total of 46.85%. The county is making progress towards its recycling rate goal of 50% set in the 20-year solid waste management plan. Although this goal has yet to be met, McLean County is well ahead of the 32.1% national recycling average,” said the annual report.
The amount of single-stream recycling collected in McLean County last year rose by 14.7%.
Information on residential recycling, recycling of nontraditional materials, and information on disposal of household hazardous wastes is available by calling (309) 454-3169 or visiting the center website.
