Every year on November 15, the United State Environmental Protection Agency recognizes America Recycles Day to celebrate the importance and impact of recycling. In the spirit of America Recycles Day, take this opportunity to review your own recycling practices at home or at work. Review our recycling guidelines below to learn more about what you can put into your curbside recycling, and what should go in the garbage bin.
As you review your recycling practices, here are some frequently asked questions we get at the EAC that might help you!
What plastic is recyclable? The ONLY plastics that can be recycled in our community are bottles, tubs, jugs, and jars. If it’s a yogurt cup, a take out container, or a clam shell from the grocery store - it goes in the garbage.
I don’t know if an item can be recycled, but I don’t want to throw it away. Can I put it in the recycling bin and hope that it can be recycled? It’ll get sorted out at the recycling center anyways, right? Wishful recycling, or “wishcycling,” when a person puts something in the recycle bin hoping it will be recycled is a bad practice. Putting nonrecyclables in the recycling bin contaminates the quality of the recycled end product, and slows down the recycling process at sorting facilities, making the cost of recycling operations increase. If you are unsure if something is recyclable, just remember - “when in doubt, throw it out!
What should I do with my old electronics? How can I recycle them? You can safely recycle your old electronics by taking them to the Electronics Recycling building at the Normal Public Works facility. This service is available to any resident of McLean County. The Public Works facility is located at 1301 Warriner Street, Normal, IL 61761. Click here to learn more about the Normal Public Works Electronics Recycling.
Still not sure if something is recyclable or not? Use the search function on our website RecycleBN.org or download our handy RecycleCoach app for your mobile device. You can always give us a call too at 309-454-3169, we are here to answer all your recycling questions and help our community recycle better!
Recycling helps keep reusable materials out of our landfills, but it also creates jobs, creates economic security, prevents pollution, and saves energy and natural resources. Click here to learn more about recycling from the USEPA.
Some important facts to know about recycling1:
Recycling has created 681,000 jobs nationwide
For every 1,000 tons of material recycled, 1.17 jobs are created
Recycling contributes to $5.5 billion in tax revenues
It’s that time of year when many households are buying Christmas Trees. Help our local environment by donating for planting of local trees this Christmas!
The Ecology Action Center’s Tree Corps program seeks to plant at least 10,000 trees a year for ten years. 2021 was wildly successful, with over 10,000 trees planted by the end of May. 2022 can be equally successful with your help!
Planting trees will give us great opportunities to:
Add never-ending beauty to Central Illinois
Enjoy working with friends for community benefit
Improve local air quality and reduce carbon dioxide
Increase native species, helping to preserve biodiversity
The EAC is joining with churches, civic groups, local governments, and many interested individuals and groups to plant trees around McLean County. Please donate now to our Plant a Tree For Christmas campaign to provide funds for 10,000 trees to be planted in McLean County in 2022!
Let's face it, dark at 5pm is unpleasant. We all need a little extra light in the darkness of winter and this ongoing pandemic, so we've decided (we might just be Larissa - our holiday-loving Assistant Director who runs the EAC’s energy programs) no need to wait until after Thanksgiving! Holiday lights can go up any time after the end of Daylight Savings! However, we don’t want that additional light to result in higher energy bills or more fossil fuels burned, so use LED lights to decorate.
Finding the right LED can be tricky. We know a lot of people do not enjoy the LEDs that give off a cool blue hue. There’s nothing cozy about that, and cozy is what we’re going for! Here are some pro tips to use when shopping for LEDs:
Most LED packaging should have a “lighting facts” chart on the side of the box that looks like a nutrition label. This is where you can find the information you need to determine which bulb is right for what you are trying to light
Lumens measure how much light you get from a bulb. The higher the lumens the brighter the bulb, and fewer lumens means a dimmer bulb
Kelvin is used in lighting to measure the color temperature of a particular light bulb. And in short, the higher the Kelvin rating (expressed in K), the whiter the light will be. Anything under 3500K is going to be a warmer light. For comparison, the standard incandescent lights we were used to were typically 2700K
Fall brings cooler temperatures and changing colors on our trees, and raking. While raking leaves isn’t rocket science, some leaf-raking practices can be harmful. Raking leaves into the street clogs storm drains, causing street flooding; if they don’t clog but rather wash down into the storm drains they become a storm water pollutant. The additional nutrients from the massive amounts of leaves decomposing in creeks, streams, or lakes removes oxygen from the water, suffocating plants and wildlife, and causing algae blooms that can result in bad odors and unpleasant tastes in drinking water.
Plus, leaf litter is actually really beneficial for our lawns and for biodiversity! Leaf litter is an important component of healthy soil. Decomposing leaf litter releases nutrients into the soil and also keeps it moist. It also serves as great nesting material, hiding places and protected spots for animals. This dead organic material provides the perfect habitat for a plethora of organisms, including worms, snails, spiders, and microscopic decomposers like fungi and bacteria.
The Ecology Action Center urges residents to help keep our local waters clean by using by using the following leaf management practices:
Let leaves lie! Leaving your leaves where they fall is beneficial for your lawn; many residents choose to mow over the leaves to break them into smaller pieces. Leaves are decomposed by earthworms and other microorganisms and turned into plant-usable organic matter. Leaves also make great mulch to protect flower beds from harsh winter weather.
Compost your leaves! Leaves are a great source of nitrogen and an important dry component to a healthy compost pile. Start a compost pile and reduce your waste, keep waterways clean, and generate free fertilizer for your lawn and garden. Find helpful instructions to start your compost pile at CompostBN.org.
Don’t break the cycle! The above two options keep your organic material on-site, rejuvenating your soil with valuable nutrients just like the nutrient cycle occurring in nature. Removing your leaves each year can gradually deplete your soil, leaving your lawn, your trees, and your garden hungry for nutrients.
Curb your leaves! If you do choose to rake your leaves for curbside pick up, the municipalities require that you rake them to the curb, but NOT into the street.
Leaf litter is not the only important element of a fall garden. Your other plants are important too! Along with leaf litter, pollinators and other insects also use the stems of flowers, shrubs and trees as habitat. They also reside in brush and rock piles, and undisturbed ground. The more natural spaces we can incorporate into our garden spaces, and leave undisturbed over winter, the more opportunities we provide for native bees and other beneficial insects to thrive.
Some easy ways to start: don't cut your flower gardens back in the fall, especially if you have a lot of native plants incorporated in your landscaping. Not only are those plants are important shelter for insects, they also provide food and shelter for small mammals and birds. Leaving your leaves (see above article) is great for our insect friends, but also very beneficial for the
health of your lawn too. Too many to leave on the lawn, move the rest into garden beds! Instead of moving a brush pile out to the curb for the city to pick up, consider leaving it in the corner of your yard. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has an excellent, detailed document with further tips how to make your garden a great place for all living things all year round!
A winter garden is not only an important support system for wildlife, they look beautiful in the snow too!
Summer is over, we had our 5 days of autumn, and now it’s time to winterize your rain barrel. Do it soon, before it becomes what our Rain Barrel Guru Gary would call “a 400 pound ice cube”!
If your rain barrel is left as is it could prevent your downspout from doing its job. You should detach your rain barrel from your downspout system before the first hard freeze.
If your barrel is installed with a “Y” diverter, all you need to do is slide the lever from one side to the other to switch from summer to winter configuration – this will divert water away from your rain barrel and back down your downspout.
With the FlexiFit diverter, remove the screws above and below the point of attachment, squeeze and wiggle the flexible insert to remove it from the downspout, then use the two screws to attach the flat cap to the downspout.
If you’ve removed part of the original downspout and attached different sections in order to route water to the barrel, remove the new sections and reattach the downspout.
After you've disconnected your rain barrel from the downspout, empty any remaining water out. If you do this by opening the spigot and letting it run, just make sure the water is moving away from the foundation of your house so you don't end up with a wet basement.
Once empty, you may notice your rain barrel has a little gravel or other debris from your roof. Remove the screen gently (do not bend) using a paint can opener or standard flat screwdriver. Use a narrow broom or long-handled brush to sweep down the sides, and invert your rain barrel to dump the debris so it won’t end up stuck in the spigot. If you have an overflow hose, you may wish to remove it and store it inside the barrel – that way it won’t get damaged, and you’ll know where to find it next spring.
Once the barrel is clean, replace the screen and leave the spigot open. While the spigots we use are pretty durable, it’s still a good idea to leave them open to minimize the risk that ice will cause damage by expanding in the spigot.
Your rain barrel can be stored in a shed, or in place, or wherever else is convenient. It is made to withstand the seasons, and doesn’t need to be indoors. If you do leave it outside, be sure to place some weight on top to ensure it you don’t find it rolling across the fields during a winter windstorm. A four-inch concrete block provides enough weight – place it over the screen, to keep water and debris out.
If you have any trouble with this process, find that a rain barrel component needs to be replaced, or you want to change your setup and need a different diverter, don’t hesitate to call us! 309-454-3169 ext. 12.
