Long time IRF/IRA member, Chicago Textile Recycling, provides textile recycling outlets and fundraising opportunities for area organizations, businesses and municipalities. By collecting used clothing, shoes and household items for reuse and recycling, Chicago Textile Recycling diverts over 2.5 million pounds of waste from area landfills annually. As the dedicated recycling division, Chicago Textile Recycling works symbiotically with parent company, Wipeco, Inc, to provide a closed-loop recycling solution for the local Chicagoland area. Founded in 1960 and family owned and operated. Wipeco, Inc. is Chicagoland’s Premier Wiping Rag Supplier, selling recycled wiping cloths nation-wide and extending the life of discarded textiles through repurposing. For more information on Wipeco and Chicago Textile Recycling, click here.

Members of the Illinois Recycling Association enjoy the benefit of spotlighting their Business, Government, Educational Institution or Non-Profit entity in a future Newsletter. If you would like to be featured, please send an email to info@illinoisrecycles.org.

REGISTER NOW FOR NEXT WEBINARS

Webinar on December 9: The Textile Recycling Committee has been working to offer a webinar explaining the importance of recycling clothing, linens and more. We have three speakers, including two members whose business is centered on the recovery of clothing and linens. The webinar will not only cover the shear volume of waste generated by a combination of Fast Fashion and American buying habits, but what we can do to recover it and, in some instances, make money for hosting a collection site.

Be sure to register here for this exciting and insightful webinar being offered on Thursday, December 9 at 10:30am-Noon.

As diversion of post-consumer food scrap from landfills has gained traction, the need for compostable products to support this effort has grown. Manufacturers have marketed a variety of items for sale to restaurants, institutions, and public event spaces, however it turns out products offered are not equal in their ability for recycling into compost. The webinar will explore recent public legislation in California to establish compostable product standards, and presents the systematic approach of a manufacturer, hauler, and compost facility in Illinois, who have successfully navigated lifecycle complexities to recycle compostable products from their initial use through finished compost. Please join us to learn from their experience. Register here!

A Note from the President, .

America Recycles Day (ARD) is 27 years old this year! Started in the State of Texas, Texas Recycles Day was the brainchild of Kevin Tuerff and Valerie Davis, employees of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In 1997 the NRC and US EPA co-sponsored a press conference at the White House with Vice President, Al Gore, as honorary chair. A free “American green Dream House” was presented to the winner of a pledge card raffle. In 2009 Keep American Beautiful (KAB) took over the ARD program. This year KAB with sponsorship by some international companies are providing supplies for a number of regional events across the country. To get the details, please see https://recycle.com/history-america-recycles-day, and https://kab.org/programs/ard.

One way to increase recycling is to involve commercial businesses in recycling. The City of Chicago has an ordinance requiring some businesses to recycle. Kane County actually required the waste hauler to provide both garbage and recycling service to the commercial clients. Jen Jarland recently wrote a summary of this approach and we have placed it on our website's Resource page. Click Here to read it.

In related news, the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) held a press event and issued a press release on their new goal of achieving a 70% recycling rate by 2030. They favor a deposit law to increase recovery. A video of the event is at this link. The speakers announced that they are forming a task force to choose which states pursue new deposit programs.

The Fall Veto session just ended. It is important to note that the deadline to file a request for bill drafting is January 7^th in the Senate and January 14^th in the House. Here is the current calendar for the Spring Legislative Session.

SCARCE, and many other members offered or assisted in bringing Pumpkin Composting to residents the first Saturday after Halloween. See the Weather Channel interview at https://youtu.be/DKhrLVp-sbc

Waste Management significantly boosts E-Scrap Collections

Did you miss The Mike Nowak Show talking with IRF member, Scott DeFife, President of the Glass Packaging Institute, and Award Winner at IRF's 2021 Annual Conference? No worries, you can listen here.

String Lights are made primarily of wire and can be recycled but never in the curbside container! Many scrap metal locations accept them, including our member The Crusher in West Chicago. As holiday decorating commences, it may be best to let folks know the broken and unwanted string lights are easily recyclable but only at specific electronics recycling drop-offs and scrap metal recycling sites.

Kane County is accepting applications for the County Recycling Coordinator position.Click here for more details.

Diageo makes glass packaging for high end liquors and is striving to increase recycled content. Click to learn about their variety of positions.

LRS (aka: Lakeshore Recycling Systems) has a variety of jobs available in Illinois and elsewhere. Click here for a full list of opportunities.

Republic Services is also looking to fill positions throughout Illinois and beyond. Please click here to begin your search.

WM (aka: Waste Management) has open positions at many locations, they are listed here.

Registration is still open for the National Zero Waste virtual Conference presented by Zero Waste USA. Register here for this 2-day virtual event on December 8-9, 2021.

"The Daily Show" Spotlights Right to Repair with humor and a focus on electronic items. Right to Repair

Starbucks, McDonald's Invest $10M in Closed Loop Partners' NextGen Consortium

Amid Shipping Crisis, Recycling Loads often "First To Get Cut"

If you missed this webinar, you missed a good one on a very relevant topic that is in the news every day. Joe Skaff from Republic Services and a member of IRF's Board of Directors, moderated a panel of experts on this subject: Mike Reinert, Cardinal Recycling; Mike Riley Jr, National Fiber Supply; Marcia Cannon and Bonnie Knuth, ResourceMFG; Chad Olson, CPC Logistics. A topic of discussion was a survey done this year targeting the blue collar worker. Worth the read.

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

William James American Philosopher, Historian, Psychologist