Carol Stream pushes recycling at apartments, condos
Apartment and condominium residents in Carol Stream looking for somewhere to recycle their plastic, glass and paper will be able to toss those items into new 6-gallon containers being distributed to their homes this week.
The village is expanding its multifamily recycling tote program to seven more apartment or condo complexes following an initial rollout that brought the blue containers to three buildings in 2009. That brings the total number of individual apartment or condo units with recycling totes to 2,620 villagewide, officials said.
They hope recycling volume could increase by as much as 50 percent as a result.
“We never quit working to make this environment better,” said Village President Frank Saverino, who helped distribute recycling bins to apartments beginning last week.
Residents in a total of 1,792 units have received the new bins, including those who live at Lakehaven Luxury Apartments, Carolwood Apartments, Parkway Commons, Covered Bridges, Villagebrook, Jubilee Village and the Legends condominium complex.
Those who live at Autumn Ridge, Renaissance and The Greenway apartment complexes received the totes during the first program rollout, supported in part by federal stimulus funds intended for sustainability programs.
That test program was deemed a success by officials from the U.S. Department of Energy who conducted site visits of the apartments, and led village officials to consider expanding the program to other apartment and condo units, said Chris Oakley, the assistant to the village manager.
Oakley, who coordinates the local recycling bin program, filled out a grant application last fall and got word in May that the village had been awarded $10,935 by the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity to purchase more recycling totes. The village’s waste hauler, Flood Brothers Disposal & Recycling Services, contributed an additional $3,646 to help pay for about 2,150 totes.
Manufactured by Rehrig-Pacific, the totes are marketed by the company as the “Apartment Recycler.”
“What this tote will do is give (residents) the option to separate (recyclables) within their unit,” Oakley said. “If you don’t have a dedicated tote, a lot of times you’ll just throw everything in the garbage. This is a visual.”
Flood Brothers regularly will collect recyclables from the apartment complexes, perhaps two or three times a week, Oakley said.
All single-family homes in the village have 65-gallon recycling containers.
“The mayor and the board have really pushed (village) staff to kind of find ways to do environmental outreach and move toward increased sustainability as a community,” Oakley said. “This is a way to better manage our waste, push that recycling rate up, and invite multifamily (units) into that whole process.”