NORMAL — With the State of Illinois no longer able to finance household hazardous waste collections in McLean County, an environmental organization in Normal is taking matters into their own hands.

The Ecology Action Center recently launched a fundraising campaign to raise money for a one-day household hazardous waste collection event in September 2012.
Over four years ago, the Ecology Action Center held its last household hazardous waste collection event that was financed through the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. On June 15, 2009, the Illinois General Assembly approved Illinois Public Act 96-0044 that “swept” the Illinois Solid Waste Management Fund that provided the IEPA with the funds they needed to finance household hazardous waste collection events.
“In the past we were dependent on state funding from the Illinois EPA for these events, but unfortunately the economy has turned sour, so the state budgets have been unable to fund these events,” said Michael Brown, director of the Ecology Action Center. “We are at this point taking matters into our own hands and looking to find the money locally and make this happen.”
According to Brown, there is a “very pressing need” for household hazardous waste disposal in McLean County.
“The main way of disposal is through periodic collection events,” said Brown. “The only other alternative is there are a few permanent collection facilities that are partially funded by the state, but those are all in the northern Illinois area, whether it be Chicago or Rockford.”
Through the fundraising campaign, the Ecology Action Centers hopes to raise $125,000, the estimated cost of a one-day collection.  
“The events in the past have cost that much ($125,000) for our community, so we need to raise at least that much this time to make sure we are able to cover the expenses,” said Brown. “That’s basically the cost of hiring the professional hazardous waste contractors who have trained certified teams who are able to identify those materials, sort them, handle them properly. The actual disposal costs are significant as well.”
If they are able to find a new source of funding, the Ecology Action Center would like to organize household hazardous waste collection events on a “more regular basis.”
“I don’t know if every year is realistic until we come up with a more stable funding mechanism for it,” said Brown. “For right now, annual, biannual or how frequent is not something we’re quite sure about yet, but we will figure that out as we move along with this.”
Household hazardous materials include pesticides, oil-based paints, mercury thermometers, old gasoline, cleaning products, insecticides, lawn chemicals and other hazardous materials.
According to the Ecology Action Center website, household hazardous waste thrown out with the regular trash ends up in a landfill and contributes to the contamination of our drinking water supply because conventional landfills are not designed to handle hazardous materials. Hazardous waste dumped illegally down drains, storm sewers or into ditches directly also pollutes our drinking water.
The City of Bloomington, Town of Normal, McLean County, McLean County Regional Planning Commission and the University of Illinois Extension-McLean County are partnering with the Ecology Action Center in the fundraising campaign.
To contribute to the fundraising campaign, send a donation to the Ecology Action Center, 202 W. College Ave., Normal, IL 61761, or make a donation through the organization’s website at www.ecologyactioncenter.org. Donations are tax deductible.