PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
August 28, 2017
Contact: Michael Brown
Phone: (309) 454-3169 x.11
With less than two weeks to go until the September 9, 2017 Household Hazardous Waste Collection for McLean County residents, the Ecology Action Center is asking everyone to share a ride. The EAC’s Executive Director Michael Brown says, “Nobody likes to sit in line—but there’s not much we can do about it, right? Wrong. The single most important thing residents can do to help reduce wait times is to carpool their hazardous waste with that of their friends and neighbors”.
According to Brown, one vehicle carrying the hazardous materials from several households is much more time-efficient for the hazardous waste crews to unload than the same volume of materials transported in multiple cars. “So this also means much fewer cars, which means the lines will be both shorter and will move faster,” added Brown.
Under the regulations allowing for one-day HHW collections in Illinois, the EAC is restricted from directly organizing any transportation of hazardous materials. They can only collect it at the event and have it transported to processing/treatment facilities. But residents can organize on their own for carpooling of materials to the collection, whether it’s through their neighborhood association, informally through word-of-mouth, or through social media sites like Nextdoor.com and Facebook.
The McLean County Household Hazardous Waste collection event will be held on Saturday, September 9 2017 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Rivian Automotive, located at 100 N. Mitsubishi Motorway in Normal. Residents must enter the facility using the south gate from West College Avenue instead of the west side entrances used in the past. Participation is limited to McLean County residents. Illinois regulations mandate that only residential HHW may be collected—no business or commercially generated wastes can be accepted.
In the past, state-sponsored HHW collections were a legal, safe, and reliable way of disposing of HHW in Illinois, but budget cuts resulted in the loss of state funding for five years. In 2012, the EAC and its partners decided that the community needed to take matters into its own hands. They developed a public-private partnership to cover the costs of holding a one-day collection. The unprecedented turnout at that event led local government partners to increase support for the 2015 collection. HHW collections are expensive; this year’s will cost as much as $180,000. The City of Bloomington, Town of Normal, and McLean County have provided $140,000. Current sponsors and event partners include Illinois Farm Bureau, Home Sweet Home Ministries, Midwest Fiber, WGLT, Radio Bloomington, Area Disposal, Henson Disposal, State Farm Insurance, and Republic Services.
The Ecology Action Center needs support from private individuals to make this a success. Donations to the McLean County HHW Fund may be made online at HHWmclean.org or by sending a check to the Ecology Action Center at 202 W College Avenue, Normal, IL 61761. The EAC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization; contributions and sponsorships are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law. Fundraising efforts will continue through the date of the HHW collection.
Details including what materials can and cannot be accepted at this event are available online. Volunteers are still needed to help with traffic control at the event; signup is available online at the same address.
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.
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