Twin City officials don’t want to force anyone to recycle, but they’re not prepared to rule it out.
Businesses and landlords could face recycling mandates under a new 20-year McLean County solid waste plan, though officials have other options they want to exhaust first to help the county get 80 percent of waste recycled by 2037.
âWe know often people are resistant to more regulations, so, where we can find solutions to any of these gaps in services without … that would be ideal â but we know in some communities an ordinance has been very effective,â said Michael Brown, executive director at the Ecology Action Center.
The EAC developed the new plan with help from the city of Bloomington, town of Normal and McLean County governments, all of which will be asked to formally approve it before February.
While both the city and town have successful curbside recycling programs â 80 percent of Bloomington homes participated as of June, versus 65 percent in Normal, which also offers six drop-off sites â officials are aiming to make recycling also common across three other categories.
The most publicly demanded, Brown said, is more options for multifamily residential recycling.
âThose drop-offs are something, but if youâre an apartment-dweller taking public transportation, thatâs not going to work very practically for recycling,â said Brown. “A few (landlords offer recycling). Some of that is the result of grassroots efforts of students and tenants who really wanted it and worked to make it happen.â
The issue is especially prevalent near the Illinois State University campus, where many students live without cars. More than 3,700 students signed a petition last year expressing their support for recycling at off-campus complexes, said Billy Stripeik, president of the ISU College Democrats.
“College kids like to drink, and probably most of their garbage cans are filled with beer cans,” said Cassie Metz, an ISU senior who helped create the solid waste plan. “Knowing climate change is such a terrible thing, understanding the huge process of creating a can and knowing most of the time they donât get recycled really bothers me.â
The challenge, said Brown, is getting recycling bins into multifamily developments in a cost-effective way. To that end, EAC is working on negotiating joint recycling contracts for buildings that are close to each other, which would save money versus hiring recycling companies separately.
That resembles what would happen under an ordinance: in Urbana, where multifamily units must offer on-site recycling bins under a 1999 mandate, the city has hired a single contractor to collect all multifamily residential recycling, said Environmental Sustainability Manager Scott Tess.
McLean County’s plan calls for a pilot that would expand to a voluntary program covering all Twin City apartment buildings by 2037. Otherwise, officials would consider an ordinance.
The plan’s approach is similar for commercial recycling.
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