Larger recycling carts paying off for city

Kudos to you, Rolling Meadows residents, for your recycling efforts.

From April through July, the city tallied a 25 percent increase in recycled materials collected compared with the same period in 2007.

Could it be due to the new green carts that replaced the smaller bins? Reid Bateman, assistant public works director in charge of recycling, would like to think so.

During the city's pilot program with the larger carts, officials sampled the weight of recycled materials from the old yellow bins and compared it with the weight from the carts. From that, a 19 percent increase in recycling was projected citywide.

When the program was expanded, the whopping 25 percent increase was seen. "This is meeting and exceeding our expectations," Bateman says.

It's above other communities' average increases when going to carts from bins, according to Brooke Beal, executive director of the Solid Waste Agency of Northwest Cook County.

"We usually see between 10 and 20 percent increases when you add a recycling art, so Rolling Meadows is on the higher end," he says.

There's a bonus for residents in that number, Bateman says. It costs the city $60 per ton to put garbage in the Glenview landfill. The more garbage recycled, the less the city pays in fees. "That'll be very good for our customers. We're going to save on disposal costs," he says.

Plus, since May, the solid waste agency has been offering its member communities rebates based on the amount recycled.

Beal says his agency tries to encourage recycling, particularly since the value of recycled materials has increased dramatically over the past months. "The more they recycle, the more we pay them," he adds.

Carts too big? Six months into Rolling Meadows' new recycling program, feedback has been positive - though initially the size of the carts surprised some people, Bateman says.

Smaller carts were offered, and a few people with smaller garages requested them.

Another order for smaller carts is going out in the coming months, but of the roughly 6,000 household waste customers, only 265 have requested and received replacements.

"Some people who thought they would want a smaller one wanted to keep the larger one," he said.

After the flooding: Did you see the soggy basement carpets piled up near curbs about a month ago on what seemed like every block? The city estimates an additional 16 tons of refuse was collected in the two weeks following the heavy rains Sept. 13-14. Too bad that's not recyclable.

• Colleen Thomas welcomes your news about community events and people. Call (847) 427-4591, or e-mail her at cthomas@dailyherald.com.