By Eric Stock
NORMAL – Household hazardous waste collections used to be an annual event in Bloomington-Normal.
Ecology Action Center would like it to be at least an every-other- year event.
The non-profit has started raising public and private funds to cover the cost of these collections, since the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency pulled annual funding in 2007.
“The funding for that has become less and less reliable, less frequent,” EAC director Michael Brown said. “As of this spring and Illinois EPA isn’t funding any collection events anywhere in Illinois.”
Brown said the center needs to raise $40,000 in private funds and in-kind contributions to pay for a hazardous waste collection in the fall. Bloomington-Normal and McLean County have pledged to kick in a total of $140,000, split based on population. Bloomington will cover 45 percent, Normal 24 percent and McLean County 31 percent for collections in 2015 and 2017.
Ecology Action Center raised money for a hazardous waste collection in 2012 while the EPA funded a collection in 2013.
Brown said the community has plenty of hazardous waste to dispose of, since there have been so few of these events in recent years.
“We need support from the community to make it happen,” Brown said.
The closest sites to dispose of these toxic, corrosive or explosive materials are in Chicago and Rockford.
EAC is accepting donations at www.hhwmclean.org or by mail to Ecology Action Center, 202 W. College Ave., Normal, Ill., 61761.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
