April/May 2024 Newsletter

The Illinois Counties Solid Waste Management Association (ILCSWMA) was established in 1993 as a not-for-profit organization for local level solid waste management officials and other interested parties. The Association is dedicated to providing a forum for networking, training and information exchange.

The Board has been busy making plans for its 2024 Conference, which will be held on Tuesday, October 29 and Wednesday, October 30 at the Marriott Hotel in Normal, Illinois. Please save these dates, as you won't want to miss interesting presentations about timely topics, area tours, networking opportunities, and lots of fun. Room rates are $107 and information regarding registration and speakers is forthcoming. Please reach out to Pete Adrian at padrian@swalco.org or Kerri Gale at kerrig@jchdonline.org if you have suggestions for session topics or speaker recommendations. Thank you.

The Association's membership runs January to December. Many thanks to the following counties, businesses, organizations, and individuals for their support and participation in 2024!

Northern Region Members

• City of Rochelle
• Cook County
• DeKalb County
• DuPage County
• Grundy County
• Jo Davies Carroll Solid Waste Agency
• Kane County
• Kendall County
• Lake County
• LaSalle County
• McHery County
• Ogle County
• Rock Island County Waste Management Agency
• Solid Waste Agency of Lake County
• Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County
• Village of Oak Park
• Will County

Central Region Members

• Coles County
• Ecology Action Center for Blooming/Normal
• Henderson County
• Macon County
• Peoria County
• Tazewell County
• Vermillion County

Southern Region Members

• Ambraw Valley Solid Waste Management Agency
• Jackson County
• Madison County
• Perry County

Affiliate Members

• Champaign County Environmental Stewards
• Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations
• Elgin Recycling
• Eunomia Research and Consulting, Inc.
• Flat Can Recycling
• Geo-Logic & Associates, Inc., Devin Moose
• g2Revolution, LLC.
• Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
• Independent Recycling Services
• Rumpke Waste and Recycling
• SCARCE
• University of Illinois at Chicago

Retiree Members



• Pat Dieckhoff
• Karen Rozmus

2023 Sponsors - complimentary 2024 memberships

• ARXG
• EERO
• GDB
• Groot
• LRS - paid $130 for membership - deduct from 2024 conference sponsorship
• Paint Care
• WasteNot Compost

It's never too late to become a member. Click on the button below to fill out a form and submit your contact information and either pay with a credit card or by check. If you have any questions about membership, please email Mary S. Allen at ilcswma@gmail.com.

The Northern Region Meeting was held on Wednesday, March 20th at SCARCE in Addison, Illinois, and 23 persons were in attendance. The Central Region Meeting was held on Thursday, March 28th at Heartland Bank in Normal, Illinois, and 21 persons were in attendance. The Southern Region Meeting was held on Tuesday, April 16th, from 10 am to 2 pm, at GDB International Inc. in Nashville, IL, with an presence of 25 persons. After the meeting attendees were offered a tour of the company's recycling facility.

Topics presented at each regional meeting included the Illinois Paint Care Take Back Legislation, the Battery Stewardship Act and it's Educational Campaign, and pending legislation in Springfiled. Additionally, members thtat were present were encouraged to provide an update about projects, programs, and events in their respective county.

Many thanks to the meeting organizers, hosts, and presenters.

The International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) theme for 2024 is truly a collaborative and international effort. Again this year, they teamed up with the International Compost Alliance (ICA), which includes compost associations from around the world, to select: COMPOST... Nature’s Climate Champion! The theme was chosen by participating international partners incorporating the collective focus on one of the initiatives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which is “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”

The 2024 theme best reflects the UN goal by highlighting the role compost plays in fighting climate change. Those roles include:

• Decreasing methane: Methane, a greenhouse gas twenty-five times as powerful as carbon dioxide, can be significantly reduced through the recycling of organics instead of their being landfilled.

• Helping with climate change mitigation: Compost offers a significant answer to climate change mitigation. Compost’s return to the soil serves as a “carbon bank,” helping to store carbon thereby removing it from the atmosphere.

• Reducing fertilizer inputs, reducing the pollution created to manufacture those inputs.

• Increasing resilience: Compost helps to increase resilience to the effects of climate change such as drought and extreme weather.

Each year, the International Compost Awareness Week Committee holds a poster contest to pick a design for the annual poster. There is always a new theme for ICAW, which is highlighted on the poster as well as that year’s dates. ICAW is always held the first full week of May. The dates for 2024 are May 5 – 11. The poster contest is open to anyone from anywhere in the world age 14 or older.

To learn more about how you can get involved with ICAW or plan an event in your community, click here to read the attachment Celebrate ICAW Manual.

Additional Resources:

• Illinois Environemental Protection Agency

• Illinois Food Scrap and Composting Coalition

• CalRecycle

Melissa Goetze is the Regional Representative for the Central Region for ILCSWMA. She is currently the Director of Environmental Health at the Tazewell County Health Department, taking the position in 2021. She received a B.S. in Business Management & Administration from Bradley University in 1991, while also focusing on Chemistry and Biology. She began at TCHD in 1991, took a break from 1994-2005 to raise her 3 kids and went back to TCHD as Sanitarian in 2005. In 2013 she became the Supervisor of Environmental Health and received her certification as an inspector for IEPA Non-Hazardous Solid Waste Management Sites; working with IEPA to put a cap on Tazewell’s legacy landfill. This Landfill had never been properly closed and had been abandoned for several years, exposing garbage and having several areas of erosion.

Melissa worked alongside the previous Director where they spent several months working on the County's current Resource Recover and Management Plan. A Green Initiatives team was created to work on the action plans. They held several public meetings for input from the community on strategies for dealing with solid waste. As Melissa now oversees the County's Plan, she enjoys the collaboration with ILCSWMA and their partnerships to try and provide Tazewell County a well-rounded opportunity to put their action plans in play!

In her free time (lol) Melissa enjoys spending time down in Southern Illinois with her granddaughter and soon to be second grandchild. Fishing with her husband and rescued pound hound Skye or riding around looking for "critters" on their 100-acre property that was placed into CRP, a land conversation program that removes environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality.

Liz Kunkle, the Zero Waste Policy Manager with the Illinois Environmental Council (IEC), provided the following informaiton on 2024 Zero Waste Legislation in Illinois. Here is an overview of Bills to that are active and moving to keep an eye on. Please contact Liz at liz@ilenviro.org with any questions.

Organics, Food Scraps, and Composting

● HB 5052 (Harper) requires state agencies to implement Good Food Purchasing policies by prioritizing local and ethical suppliers. Passed State Govt Administration Committee 4/3 (6-3), 2nd reading 4/4, Floor Amendment #2 filed 4/15.

● SB 2876 (Villa) requires the owner/operator of event facilities with a maximum capacity/occupancy of at least 3,500 people to provide recycling and composting services. Passed Senate 4/11 (42-16), referred to House Rules Committee & 1st reading 4/12.

Single-use Plastics & Microplastics 

● SB 2960 / HB 4639 (Buckner/Fine) prevents hotels from providing small single-use plastic bottles containing personal care products. Passed Senate 4/10 (42-16), referred to House Rules Committee & 1st reading 4/11.

Bottle Bill & EPR

● SB 85 (Murphy) creates a statewide bottle deposit return program. Re-assigned to Executive 1/10, Subject Matter Hearing 4/17.

● SB 3165 (Koehler) SB 1555 trailer bill includes more specific provisions regarding data confidentiality. Passed Senate unanimously 4/12 (57-0), referred to House Rules Committee & 1st reading 4/15.

SB 0849 (Holmes) 

Amends the Environmental Protection Act by changing Section 3.475 and by adding section 22.23e to allow Paint and Paint related waste to be considered Universal Waste. Filed on 4/17 

WasteNot Compost is proud to be the compost collection hauler for the Villages of Riverside and Morton Grove starting in January 2024. Residents will receive exclusive rates for compost collection as part of these official partnerships between WasteNot and the municipalities. If any municipality is interested in WasteNot's municipal service, please reach out to partners@wastenotcompost.com.

STAY CONNECTED

Please send in information to share with the membership about a new program, data from a collection event, or anything pertaining to successful waste prevention initiatives or enforcement. If you are a full member and have others in your department that would like to receive this newsletter, please send an email request to ILCSWMA's administrative coordinator, Mary S. Allen, at ilcswma@gmail.com.