Illinois e-News Release

SPRINGFIELD - Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) Director James Jennings has announced a new partnership with Recycle Coach to provide all Illinois residents in 6,835 units of local government a holistic, locally-tailored, easy to access recycling education platform. In the coming months, Recycle Coach will be engaging counties and municipalities across the state to ensure all Illinois residents are afforded the opportunity to have their community participate in this opportunity. Use of the program will decrease inbound contamination at material recovery facilities in Illinois, increase the amount of material diverted from Illinois landfills, prevent environmental contamination, and ultimately reduce emissions that contribute to climate change.

“The Illinois EPA is excited to offer this innovative technology that will provide all Illinois residents with advanced and easily accessible tools to allow them to increase and improve recycling throughout our communities,” said Illinois EPA Director James Jennings. “We look forward to partnering with Recycle Coach to make this tool available to all Illinois residents, which will help expand the amount of recyclable materials diverted from Illinois landfills.”

As part of this partnership, Recycle Coach will conduct a community-specific evaluation of the materials management infrastructure within the state and develop a website, smartphone app, and marketing materials tailored to each community, including disadvantaged communities.  These tools will be easily accessible and searchable, and available in multiple languages.

Increasing the volume of materials recycled reduces the amount of greenhouse gases generated by Illinois landfills. In addition, by empowering residents with community specific knowledge about their waste and accurate recycling options at their fingertips, the amount of contamination in Illinois waterways and on the land from waste mishandling will decrease significantly.

Through Recycle Coach, active onboarding is already underway in six Illinois counties: Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, and Tazewell. The Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO)’s program is already live, and the City of Chicago announced its program went live last week. Once all communities in the six counties are live, it will represent 63 percent of Illinois’ population reached with Recycle Coach.

Recycle Coach is available at no cost to Illinois communities. Local governments can request an on-boarding meeting by emailing [email protected]. A secure web app will be provided for municipal waste websites, and residents will be encouraged to download the free Recycle Coach app.