Trash burning dropped from Lake Co. plan

Burning garbage as an alternative to dumping it in landfills has been dropped as a possibility in Lake County for at least several years.

And, a special effort to find ways to dramatically boost recycling here by 2020 also will be made, following recommendations Wednesday.

The suggestions from the county's public works and transportation committee were part of what has become a lengthy process to update the county's solid waste management plan.

That's normally an obscure exercise that occurs about every five years and requires approval by the full county board. But the possibility of an incinerator as an alternative disposal method sparked a well-organized citizen effort to debate the merits.

"It just goes to show how a grass-roots effort such as ours can make a difference and very quickly," said Grayslake resident Elizabeth Miller, spokeswoman for Incinerator Free Lake County.

Burning garbage and other alternatives to convert waste to energy for the first time were included in the waste plan update, although none were specifically recommended as answers to dwindling landfill space.

The two landfills in Lake County - Countryside in Grayslake and the Zion Landfill - have about 91/2 and 5 years of space remaining respectively, though a proposed expansion at Zion would add about 8 years of capacity.

The situation led the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County to conclude the county needs to "start seriously considering long-term options for managing its waste requiring disposal."

Opponents objected to including incineration as an option, arguing it was an unproven and costly method that poses health risks.

Those concerns were taken to heart by the committee, which recommended incineration be removed from the plan as an alternative.

It also recommended limiting the amount of trash that could be disposed of in any alternative measure to 500 tons a day, and the technology in that instance be commercially available or proven.

About 2,500 tons of waste are dumped in Lake County landfills each day.

Decreasing that amount through recycling is another key aspect of the disposal plan, though the committee suggested upping the ante. A provision added to the waste plan states a strategy should be determined to increase the county's recycling rate from the current 38 percent to 60 percent by 2020.

A task force to include members of Incinerator Free Lake County and others will be created with the directive to weigh in on those possibilities by Nov. 1.

"What we'll have to look at closely is the organic waste collection," said Walter Willis, SWALCO executive director. Studies have shown food scraps account for about 13 percent of landfill waste, he added. "It's a huge component of our waste stream that we need to get out of there."

The revisions in the solid waste plan will be made and considered a final time by the committee before being forwarded to the full county board for action.