Barrington offers larger recycling containers

Barrington residents now have the opportunity to recycle more than ever before.

Starting this month, residents can exchange their 65-gallon Groot recycling container for a 95-gallon one.

Barrington Assistant Public Works Director Mark Werksman said the new program is another way the village is trying to be more "green."

"We are always trying to encourage more recycling," he said.

Frank Hillegonds of Groot Recycling and Waste Services, the village's refuse hauler, said that of the many communities it serves in the area, Barrington is the first to offer the 95-gallon recycling container.

"We are really excited to be working with Barrington on this," he said. "They are the first for us."

Many residents, Werksman said, have complained their recycled materials were spilling over the 65-gallon container.

"Some people didn't have room to recycle anymore," Werksman said.

That led some to put their extra recycling in bags or smaller containers next to the official Groot container.

Those extras, Werksman said, many times end up getting picked up with the regular trash rather than recycled, since the new mechanical garbage trucks only pick up the official containers.

"We want to prevent that from happening," he said. "Everything we can keep out of landfills is a positive."

There was some discussion of allowing residents to switch containers, using the larger one for recycling and the smaller one for refuse.

But Public Works Director Dennis Burmeister said Groot was concerned that people would end up having more trash than could fit in the small container.

While Barrington's recycling bins are going up in size, Hillegonds said many communities are just now going from 18-gallon variety to 65 gallons.

"That seems to be the next trend," he said.

But he said he doesn't expect many other communities to start offering the 95-gallon container like Barrington.

"A lot of residents don't generate that much (recycled materials)," Hillegonds said.

There is a one-time, $25 charge to exchange resident's current containers for the larger one.

For more information, contact Barrington Public Works at (847) 381-7903. To get the larger bin, call Groot at (800) 244-1977.