McLean County reached a 51% recycling rate in 2024, making it the first time half the amount of waste generated was recycled.
That target was set in the county's 2017 Twenty-Year Solid Waste Management Plan and puts the county ahead of the national recycling average of 32%. Michael Brown from the Ecology Action Center [EAC] said this has been a long-term effort.
“Our community has had a Solid Waste Plan, I believe, since the 90s, even late 80s. It was actually our precursor Operation Recycle that really pushed for a communitywide solid waste plan, even prior to the statewide mandate,” Brown said.
Brown said the first recycling drive in McLean County was in February 1971, which saw a handful of people who wanted to see recycling services provided.
“It was wildly successful, but unfortunately, no one else picked up the torch, and so they had to do so, and it became a regular service,” Brown said. “In the 1990s when the municipalities decided to start offering recycling, as far as their waste services, is when Operation Recycle got out of that direct service business and started to focus more on the long term.”
This is also when Operation Recycle started looking at waste planning needs, an increase in education outreach and became the official solid waste agency for McLean County. Eventually Operation Recycle transitioned into the Ecology Action Center.
Brown said although they are excited to have hit their goal, their work continues.
In 2024 McLean County had a 5% increase in total waste generation, but with less waste landfilled as almost 15% more waste was recycled than the previous year.
Bloomington and Normal recycled more brush and leaves last year, while the Ecology Action Center increased food waste collection through its composting program by 23% compared to 2023.
EAC also noted an increase in textile recycling, due partly to an expanded recycling of quilted mattress covers from the Kern Mattress Outlet.
The increase in recycling came despite a drop in paper recycling as print media and classroom materials become increasingly digital.
Population growth in the county has led to more solid waste, from 181,400 tons in 2020 to 245,300 tons in 2024 — a 35% increase.
New goal
The center has set a new goal of 60% recycled waste by 2027.
“We're still trying to focus on reduced contamination, because that's been plaguing recycling for many years, and so that's still one of our key messages, but there are other areas you know that we still need to make improvement,” Brown said.
Some of the areas the Ecology Action Center is looking to expand are composting, more community outreach and a group program for businesses to recycle more effectively.
“We could try and make commercial recycling more cost effective for businesses, essentially by organizing dense geographic roots, and getting businesses in those areas to subscribe at a theoretically lower rate,” Brown said.
Another large goal is to build a household hazardous waste collection facility to help collect things people cannot recycle within their homes.
“This is not one of those things that would necessarily show much change in that recycling rate. Part of that reason is because not all the households has this waste stuff can be recycled, but also it's not so much that it's a large volume waste stream, but it's extremely toxic, and so it is the dangerous stuff, and it's the things we don't want in the landfill,” Brown said.
Brown said more education through social media, public events and classroom time has made a difference.
“We do waste recycling, waste reduction and recycling programs in virtually every fourth-grade classroom in McLean County every single year, and that's thousands of students right there,” Brown said.
