Recycling

The Ecology Action Center had thought the county's recycling rate in 2024 topped 50% for the first time ever when it was actually 43%. In calculating the 2025 numbers, the center found data previously confirmed was misreported by another agency.

When Daniel Kern officially founded the nonprofit Kernovate in 2025, he hoped to solve three problems: diverting mattresses from landfills, giving beds to those in need and providing work opportunities.

As part of NPR's Climate Solutions Week, you'll learn about efforts to make sustainability and recycling easier for college students in Illinois. Because one student’s trash is another’s treasure come the next semester.

McLean County reached a 51% recycling rate in 2024, making it the first time half the amount of waste generated was recycled.

ISU's annual Front-Yard Freecycle event offered new and returning students on campus to claim dorm room and apartment must haves with no charge.

The president of a recycling and clean-cooking initiative emphasized the importance of nonprofits working closely with, and listening to, the populations they serve.

Gov. JB Pritzker has signed a battery recycling law sponsored by State Rep. Sharon Chung of Bloomington and State Sen. Dave Koehler of Peoria.

A plastics recycler in Bloomington now appears to be complying with Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District efforts to find out what was going on at the site on South Bunn Street, between Croxton and Bell.

McLean County registered its highest recycling rate ever last year. Nearly 48% of all municipal solid waste produced in the county did not go to a landfill.

A federal judge has sentenced four people for their parts in a gun store burglary ring that tried to grab weapons from five counties in Central Illinois, including McLean.