A year after the Ecology Action Center [EAC] got a green light on its proposal for a permanent hazardous waste disposal site, the Normal nonprofit is casting a wide net to raise the approximately $6 million needed to get the project off the ground.
Executive Director Michael Brown said pending state legislation regulating disposal of toxic and combustible items could help.
State Sen. Dave Koehler and state Rep. Sharon Chung, both Democrats representing Bloomington-Normal in Springfield, have expressed their support, but Brown said the bill failed last year and is also unlikely to pass in 2026.
Even with that, there’s still a lot of money to raise. Brown said EAC is pursuing a variety of state, federal and private funding opportunities, but it’s not yet to the point of identifying a location for the site.
“That is an urgent step, but I think we need to have a sufficient amount of money in hand to purchase a property before we can start shopping for an actual parcel,” he said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
Brown has been pushing for a permanent hazardous waste disposal site for over a decade. Last year’s feasibility study provided a road map and projected the price tags for both up front capital expenses and the ongoing cost of maintaining such a site.
It’s the largest sum his organization has ever had to raise, and certainly not the county’s only priority. But with the next closest sites in East St. Louis and Naperville [a suburb north of Chicago], Brown said the benefits will extend well beyond McLean County.
“That is the premise of most waste programs,” he said. “Reducing the barriers to access is what makes support, cooperation and participation possible. That’s what making hazardous waste collection events more frequent is trying to do—making them more common for residents across Illinois. But then, yes, permanent facilities in particular really reduce that barrier.”
As for how much EAC has left to raise, Brown declined to share a specific number, since a few significant funding sources are still pending. He said the nonprofit's crowdfunding portal accepting private donations of any amount remains open on their website.
April is Hazardous Waste Awareness Month
Household waste that is combustible, flammable, corrosive or toxic requires specialized disposal.
Brown said the list of hazardous waste materials is longer than most people think.
“Probably millions of different consumer products,” he said. “Household chemicals, harsh household cleaners, basically any automotive-type fluids or products. It means oil-based paints. Anything in an aerosol can, really, that’s pressurized.”
Brown said there’s risk associated with such items when they wind up in municipal landfills, down storm drains or into sewers, which can all lead to groundwater contamination.
“We’re using these products on a daily basis, and we kind of take for granted the disposal part—that when you throw something away it ‘goes away’ and it’s taken care of. That’s not really the case,” Brown said.
Take the trash can, for example. Brown said toxic chemicals that wind up in a landfill can comingle with other items and cause chemical reactions that eat away at a liner protecting nontoxic but still-not-great things [like plastic and food waste] from leeching into soil and groundwater. Pouring used motor oil into the convenient storm drain at the end of the driveway more immediately impacts the water supply.
“We can have fires inside of landfills, which is a really bad thing,” Brown said. “None of those are really desired outcomes.”
Proof of concept: E-waste recycling
Brown said examples like curbside, mixed-stream recycling and electronics recycling programs are evidence of how well reducing barriers to access works.
“We’ve had e-waste recycling in McLean County for 25-plus years—even before state mandates for such things,” Brown said. “People use it very, very well. I would say the very, very enthusiastic support and participation of our e-waste program is a perfect indicator for what would happen with hazardous waste.”
Brown said the facility would have a similar footprint to a big box home improvement store.
“They contain actually the same exact products we’d be collecting, and probably in similar quantities. We’re just taking back people’s leftovers,” he said. “Lowes, Menards, Home Depot—none of those require special zoning because of those materials, and so this facility wouldn’t either. It would not be a significant risk to any neighboring businesses.”
