Carol Stream flagged for environmental efforts

Carol Stream is the first in the county to be recognized for its environmental efforts with an Earth Flag.

The DuPage County Board last month presented the flag - a symbol of Earth Day that includes a picture of the planet seen from space - to highlight the work the village has done to preserve natural resources, including several steps being taken by village employees.

"We're on a mission to make the earth a better place," Village President Frank Saverino said. "If everyone did what we're doing, it would be a great thing."

Efforts have included composting lunch waste by employees, no longer using Styrofoam coffee cups at village hall, using recycled hand towels in the washrooms, requirements that the janitorial contractors use environmentally friendly cleaning products and a two-hour sustainability workshop.

"This is something that we've been doing for a while, but we really kicked it into second gear here with recycling electronic stuff," Saverino said.

The village hosted an Arbor Day shredding and electronic recycling event in April, where 12,465 pounds of electronics were dropped off.

Carol Stream also co-hosted a household hazardous waste collection last October, where pharmaceuticals, paint, batteries and other chemicals were safely disposed of.

"We teamed up with the county," Saverino said. "It turned out to be a perfect way to do it. Thousands of gallons of paint that would have ended up in landfills were brought in."

The village has also been testing all the pipes in town to make sure there are no leaks and distributed 4,000 compact fluorescent bulbs to the community.

Residents have been doing their part by removing debris from local creeks at annual cleanups.

Saverino said Carol Stream also signed up with Flood Brothers for garbage disposal because the company was the only one that would do recycling at apartment complexes and condominiums.

"We had hundreds of people who e-mailed and called that said they want to recycle," he said, which prompted that decision.

The Earth Flag is on display at village hall.