How a new program will keep hard-to-recycle items out of landfills

You want to be a more responsible consumer, but find that some common household plastics, like the utensils that come with takeout orders, aren’t accepted for recycling.

That soon will change in several Lake County communities and townships, as orange bags will be the focus of a new program to keep hard-to-recycle items out of landfills.

Chip bags, foam egg cartons, takeout containers, plastic bags, bubble wrap, plastic utensils and more are the targets of the program launching next month and meant to complement current recycling efforts.

“This is for the stuff we told you not to put with your recycling,” said Walter Willis, executive director of the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County.

“For the past 16 years, SWALCO has been working on finding a better way to collect and manage hard-to-recycle plastics,” he added.

SWALCO is partnering with Lakeshore Recycling Systems and Lake Forest-based Reynolds Consumer Products in the trademarked Hefty ReNew program. Hefty is one of Reynolds’ familiar brands.

Starting in October, the program will be offered in nine municipalities and unincorporated areas in five townships served by LRS: Bannockburn, Deerfield, Gurnee, Highland Park, Highwood, Lake Villa, Lincolnshire, North Chicago and Riverwoods; and Avon, Moraine, Shields, Warren and West Deerfield townships.

The Hefty ReNew orange bags will be available at Jewel-Osco, Menards, Sunset Foods and Ace Hardware beginning next month. Until then, people can request a starter kit online at heftyrenew.com and start collecting immediately.

Participants put accepted items in the orange bag and, when full, place it in their recycling bin or cart alongside loose recyclables. Accepted items are printed on the bag. The orange color is essential for recycling processors to make sure they go to the right place and not a landfill, according to SWALCO.

Since it began in 2018, more than 2,800 tons of hard-to-recycle plastics have been diverted from landfills in Georgia, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee, Arizona and Ohio, according to Reynolds. The program was known as Hefty Energy Bag until 2023.

“Providing more people with the opportunity to divert waste from landfills and improve their community is our mission and we’re able to bring it here with our partnerships with LRS and SWALCO,” Carlee Bilello, senior marketing director for Hefty ReNew, said in news release announcing the program.

Willis said the program can engage residents and take SWALCO's recycling program to the next level.

A 2015 state study of what went into landfills found that plastic bags and other plastic film totaled about 5% of what consumers generate. According to Willis, about 15 million tons of waste are landfilled each year, so that 5% — about 750,000 tons — is a “significant amount of waste that could be diverted.”

Joshua Connell, vice president of government affairs and co-founder at LRS, said the orange bag program is a convenient way to recycle material that otherwise would be taken to a landfill.

“At LRS, our mission is to provide innovative waste diversion and recycling solutions that make a tangible difference in the communities we serve,” he said.

Hefty ReNew is limited to towns that have a hauling contract with LRS, and from which recyclables go to the company’s material recovery facility in Northbrook, according to Willis. Towns further west, like Lake Zurich, can’t participate yet because LRS takes those recyclables to a different facility, which is not set up to sort the orange bags, he added.

Other waste haulers were interested in the program, Willis said, but their material recovery facilities also are not set up to accept the items. Many don’t have picking lines at the front end because of a shift to more mechanical separation, he said.

“They don’t have space for people to grab (the bags), essentially,” he said.

The partners hope to expand the program to other communities early next year, but plans haven’t been finalized. A key will be getting more material recovery facilities set up to accept and sort the orange bags.