Will County Board to consider more electronic recycling locations

JOLIET – Two more electronic recycling drop-off locations could open in Will County if the County Board approves Thursday a pair of intergovernmental agreements.

The board’s Executive Committee voted Thursday in favor of deals with the village of Peotone and New Lenox Township for the two government bodies to host electronic drop-off events twice a month. There is currently one active drop-off location, in Lockport, for electronics recycling in the county.

Will County Resource Recovery and Energy Division recycling specialist Marta Keane said the Lockport location, open from 6 to 11 a.m. Tuesdays and Fridays at the Lockport Public Works Department, has been successful. Each session averages 80 to 100 vehicles that drop off unwanted electronics, which are shrink wrapped onto pallets, placed in a 53-foot trailer and hauled away by the county’s new vendor, Electronic Recyclers International.

So far, this strategy is working, Keane said.

“We’re hearing other communities like this idea,” she said. “We might come forward with more intergovernmental agreements and try to grow this model.”

March 1 was the day the county's old program – including its 13 drop-off sites – ended after its longtime recycling vendor exited its contract prematurely. That left officials scrambling to find a new one and consumers without an outlet to drop off old electronics.

Keane said it seems several smaller drop-off events a month provide a consistency residents can take advantage of without sitting in backed-up traffic on Houbolt Road during the yearly Recyclepalooza at Joliet Junior College.

The twice-monthly events in Peotone and New Lenox Township would complement the Lockport events well, Keane said. The proposed Peotone drop-off events would be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at the village’s police department. The New Lenox Township office’s events would be from 5 to 7 p.m. the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month.

Residents from each of the county’s municipalities have made trips to Lockport to drop off electronics, Keane said, but this would bring more opportunity to southern and eastern county residents.

People from any of Will County’s 37 communities would be allowed to use the sites, Keane said. If a municipality has a portion of its boundaries within Will County, such as Naperville or Minooka, residents from any part of the municipality can drop off electronics. Identification cards are checked at the drop-off site. Drop-off events are limited to two televisions per vehicle.

The programs could continue through the rest of the year with board approval.