NORMAL — Recycling levels in McLean County dipped 1.4% between 2018 and 2019, but the county remains on track to reach its goal of recycling 50% of all waste by 2022, according to the Ecology Action Center.
"The year-to-year fluctuations, especially to that degree, are not too significant," said Michael Brown, executive director of the Normal-based center. "What's really the most important here are the longer-term trends."
The rate stood at 45.74% last year, according to the calculation of community-wide waste generation and recycling released this week. That means of the 193,102 tons of municipal solid waste generated in 2018-2019, 88,330 tons were recycled and 104,772 tons were taken to the landfill.
There also was a 5.47% decrease in solid waste generated, from 204,271 tons the previous year and 211,230 tons from 2016 to 2017.
The amount of waste entering landfills also declined for the third year. From 2018 to 2019, a total of 104,722 tons of waste were taken to the landfill, down from 109,467 the previous year and 124,364 from 2016 to 2017.
"The fact that's dropping as well, that's definitely a good indicator," Brown said. "Hopefully in the next several years we're actually going to be recycling more waste than what is going to the landfill."
ncreasing recycling is the centerpiece of a 20-year Ecology Action Center action plan for McLean County, Bloomington and Normal. Part of it calls for promoting recycling participation in hopes of driving down costs added by taking the waste to the landfill in Pontiac after the McLean County one closed in 2018.
It's unclear how future volumes will change as a result of a 2018 Normal ordinance requiring landlords to offer recycling services to tenants. ???
