Curbside hazardous waste pickup to return to Geneva
Curbside pickup of household hazardous waste will resume soon in Geneva.
The city is poised to sign an agreement with Kane County, tacking on to its contract with US Ecology.
Geneva will pay Kane County for $20,000 worth of collections a year.
For two years Geneva offered curbside hazardous waste pickup through its garbage deal with Advanced Disposal. There were about 140 calls per year, public works director Rich Babica said.
The hauler notified the city in January it was dropping the service.
That left Genevans in the same boat as residents of Batavia, Aurora and other southern Kane County towns. To get rid of hazardous waste safely and responsibly, they had to take it to a collection site approved by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in western Naperville.
Geneva officials learned in the spring the county was to sign a contract with US Ecology for curbside pickup of household hazardous waste, and asked if it could join the contract.
The county program allows residents of certain areas one collection per year. Items accepted for pickup include aerosol products, antifreeze, automotive fluids, batteries, oil-based blacktop sealer, fire extinguishers, tube and compact fluorescent light bulbs, gasoline, lawn chemicals, oxygen tanks, oil-based paints, medications, pool chemicals, propane tanks and smoke detectors.
Pickup is also available to residents of the Mill Creek subdivision near Geneva, and Elgin, Hampshire, Rutland, Dundee, Burlington and Plato townships.
Users call the company to arrange a pickup. The company then sends a clear plastic bag, labels and instructions, and schedules a pickup date. The bags can handle about 100 pounds.
"It sounds like a great program, and I like that you reached out to Kane County to make sure this still exists for our residents," Alderman Richard Marks said Monday night, when Geneva's committee of the whole gave preliminary approval to the contract. It will vote on the contract Aug. 21.