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When Kane County’s recycling program cycles up for 2016, there likely will be a few changes.

Recycling Coordinator Jennifer Jarland made a presentation Wednesday (Aug. 12, 2015) requesting that the county add some bells and whistles to recycling events in June and November and cut out the cold-weather recycling events next season.

“I suggested we have a winter break,” Jarland told members of the Kane County Energy and Environmental Committee.

Kane County in past years has put together a recycling event from 8 a.m. to noon on the second Saturday of every month at the Kane County court services building at 540 S. Randall Road in St. Charles. The county collects books and electronics at every event and does document shredding and Latex paint collection quarterly.

The county’s big recycling event of the year is its Recycling Extravaganza on the second Saturday in June. The 2015 Recycling Extravaganza was attended by more than 2,000 people, and in four hours, about 50 volunteers and staff members collected six trailers full of electronics, a 20-cubic-yard Dumpster of books for recycling, a full box-truck of Styrofoam, peanuts and bubble wrap, more than 1,000 fluorescent tubes, a 30-cubic-yard truck full of latex paint, 30,000 pounds of documents for shredding, a half truck full of clothes, shoes, and textiles, plus 20 bicycles, a couple wheel chairs, several pairs of crutches and a lot more.

The winter collections, however, are much smaller events and not nearly as well attended. Last winter’s extreme cold also made it very difficult to hold the January event, when the temperature was a balmy minus-4 degrees.

Jarland recommended limiting next year’s monthly collection events to eight months of the year — April through November — and adding shredding and paint to the events in June and November.

She said she would use the “extra time” to begin implementing some of the recommendations in the recently adopted 2015 Solid Waste Management and Resources Recovery Plan.

That would include enforcing the existing recycling ordinance for commercial businesses and apartments, a promoting food-scrap composting programs, developing additional opportunities for textile recycling, searching for grant monies and supporting recycling efforts and recycling awareness in local schools.

Jarland underlined that Kane County holds more recycling events than most counties in the state and would still hold more recycling events than almost every county in the state, even if it eliminates the December-through March events. Many Illinois counties hold just one event per year, and several counties host just two or three events per year. Kane County also provides opportunities for residents to deposit recyclables at drop-off locations throughout the county.

Energy and Environmental Committee Chair Barbara Wojnicki took a straw poll of committee members, all of whom endorsed the proposed changes to the schedule. Jarland said she was seeking approval at this time so that she could make the announcements on the Kane County Recycles web pages, social media and in the Kane County Green Guide.

Click here to see an online version of the 2015-16 Green Guide.