Last fall, the Rock Island County Waste Management Agency closed four, drop-off recycling sites. On Tuesday, members of Bring Back the Bins will attend the agency's public hearing about next year's budget.
Phil Dennis, the chair of the group says the lack of accessibility to recycling is harmful to county residents.
"Just in the city of Rock Island, 70 percent of the residents don't have drop off bins. There's a real need to have public bins available, so people don't have to travel to Iowa to recycle." says Dennis.
Richard Nesseler says recycling benefits the economy.
"Every time you purchase something virtually your price is cheaper if we recycle because what it's packaged in, is recyclable. Not only that, but the product that you buy, so much of that product is recyclable, which means that cheaper when we recycle." says Nesseler.
The Rock Island County Waste Management Agency board meeting will start at 1 pm at the county office building.
In September of last year, the agency's coordinator, Brandon Melton told WVIK that the RICWMA lost about 20% of their annual budget during 2020 and the pandemic.
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Friday, June 17, 2022 by Michelle O'Neill
A group called "Bring Back the Bins" says a private company is willing to provide drop-off recycling for Rock Island County. And at a public hearing on Tuesday, members plan to ask the Rock Island County Waste Management Agency to spend 80,000 dollars to help restore recycling service. Last September, the agency closed four, drop-off recycling sites.
Phil Dennis, a member of Bring Back the Bins, says Midland Davis in Moline has offered to host a drop-off site.
"There's $80,000 available in the current budget that the agency could, instead of for these 2 vague items, step up and offer a subsidies for 1 or 2 vendors who want to provide a public recycling site on their private property." says Dennis.
On Tuesday, the Rock Island County Waste Management Agency is scheduled to vote on next year's budget.
Phil Dennis says, "For the last two months, Midland Davis has attended the meeting; has been trying to work out its site as a private county wide drop-off site, secured and maintained by the firm during regular business hours. But, there's been no support from RICWMA to help the subsidize the capital cost, the one time cost, of setting up this convenient county wide drop-off site."
Dennis says one 40,000-dollar line item expense in the budget is labeled "County-wide Waste Resources Outreach" under Public Education and Information. And another 40,000-dollar program expense is labeled "Drop-off Recycling Fund."
