McLean County’s unique public-private partnership for Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) yielded another successful collection event on Saturday, October 17, with a 22 percent increase in vehicles passing through the event compared to the most recent HHW collection that took place two years ago. The Ecology Action Center’s (EAC) Executive Director Michael Brown describes the event as a “…tremendous, unqualified success, made possible due to the overwhelming broad-based support from our community.” The full 2015 HHW Report can be downloaded from the EAC website at ecologyactioncenter.org.
Contributions to the EAC’s McLean County HHW Fund have reached $182,703–exceeding the original goal of $180,000. This amount not only ultimately covered all of the event costs but also left seed money towards the next HHW collection, which is planned for 2017. Brown gives credit broadly for this achievement, noting that local government, businesses, and residents all contributed generously to ensure this collection would happen. He also extended thanks to the nearly 100 enthusiastic EAC volunteers that worked the event.
Almost 1,600 cars came through the HHW collection, with a total of 2,256 households participating. This is due to a high rate of residents “car-pooling” their hazardous waste materials, bringing the waste of multiple households at once.
Sponsors and partners of the 2015 HHW Collection include: City of Bloomington, Town of Normal, McLean County, Radio Bloomington, Republic Services, State Farm Insurance, Home Sweet Home Ministries, Midwest Fiber, WGLT, Henson Disposal and Recycling, Carlson Exteriors, Mitsubishi Motors North America, Illinois Farm Bureau, Country Financial, Growmark, Springfield Electric, McLean County Regional Planning, and McLean County Health Department.
Acting as the local solid waste agency, the EAC coordinates Household Hazardous Waste collection on behalf of Bloomington, Normal, and McLean County. Traditionally, the State of Illinois funded HHW collection through nearly annual events coordinated by the EAC. However, state budget cuts have severely impacted the HHW program, resulting in a lack of dependable options for safe and legal disposal of HHW materials. The EAC, in partnership with the City of Bloomington, Town of Normal, and McLean County, originally created a unique and successful public-private partnership model to fund HHW collection in 2012.
The Ecology Action Center is a not-for-profit environmental agency with a mission to inspire and assist residents of McLean County in creating, strengthening and preserving a healthy environment. The EAC acts as a central resource for environmental education, information, outreach, and technical assistance in McLean County.
