Lake County recycling task force has lofty goal
It won't happen quickly or easily but an effort is under way to get Lake County residents, businesses and builders to recycle or divert materials from the trash can at a much higher rate.
That likely will mean paying more attention to existing programs, like curbside recycling or expanding untapped avenues, such as recycling food scraps, as part of an admittedly ambitious goal.
"We may find we've set a goal that's pretty hard to reach but we've got to try," said Walter Willis, executive director of the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County.
The agency's Recycling Task Force, which held its inaugural meeting Thursday, is coordinating a plan to boost recycling rates within a decade to 60 percent from the current average of about 38 percent.
Raising those rates was included as a recommendation in SWALCO's recently approved five-year plan when burning trash was nixed as a possibility following a lengthy and feisty debate.
The idea will be to have the various groups - residential, commercial and construction - divert more and different types of materials from landfills.
"We need each one of them to pull their weight," Willis said.
The task force has 27 members, including the original 16 members who provided input on the SWALCO long-range plan, and 11 new appointees such as Lake County Board members Ann Maine of Lincolnshire and Pat Carey of Grayslake.
"Changing people's behavior, how do you do that?" Carey asked. "Half of what goes into the landfills today could be recycled."
Both agree there are ample opportunities to make a dent. While most single-family homes can put recyclables at the curb, for example, that is not the case for multifamily residences.
"That's another area that has been untapped," Maine said. "I think there really is a room for a lot of improvement."
Willis said current recycling rates are about 31 percent for residential, 36 percent for business and 40 percent for construction.
But there are variations within categories. The average amount of residential recycling varies from 300 pounds per family to 1,400 pounds per family depending on the town, Willis said.
Recycling food scraps is "an area ripe for growth," he added. Issues involved in that possibility include cost and new composting sites.
On another front, approval requirements to establish facilities to deal with construction and demolition debris, for example, have been eased, Willis said. There is only one of those facilities in Lake County at present, in Zion, but that could change, he added.
Information concerning the group and its goals will be posted soon at www.lakecountyil.gov/swalco. Meanwhile, individual members will be studying what other communities or even countries are doing for example, in advance of the next meeting in September. The task force report is due March 1, 2011.
"We're going to give ourselves until 2020 to get there but we'll have some short-term goals and some long-term goals," Willis said.