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.”
Contributions to the EAC’s McLean County HHW Fund have reached $181,123–exceeding the original goal of $180,000. 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, however, the total number of households’ participating could be much higher due to many residents working together with neighbors to “carpool” their materials to the event, which results in shorter wait times for everyone. Complete data is not yet available on volumes of materials collected and total numbers of households participating, but will be published on the EAC website at a later date. Total event costs are relative to the volumes of materials collected; the true success of fundraising efforts will not be known until all bills for the collection, transportation, and safe disposal of the HHW materials are paid.
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.
