Glen Ellyn's curbside composting program takes off

GLEN ELLYN – These days, Glen Ellyn resident Jennifer Umlauf is recycling her food scraps and coffee grinds instead of throwing them into the garbage.

Umlauf participates in the village's curbside composting program, which started April 1. The village is offering the pilot program to residents on a voluntary, subscription basis.

"It makes it easy for me to do what I feel like I should be doing, which is composting as much as possible and diverting as much as I can from landfills," she said.

As part of the program, residents can recycle organic items including food scraps, bread, vegetables, table scraps, dairy, coffee grounds and pasta.

Residents also can place yard waste such as grass clippings, garden vegetation, leaves and brush into their composting carts. Since 1990, Illinois has banned yard waste from landfills.

Those items are collected and made into compost, which can be used by farmers, along with other agricultural and landscape operations. Along with reducing the amount of organic waste that is sent to landfills, village officials said the curbside composting program also decreases the amount of associated gas emissions from landfills.

Umlauf is a member of the Glen Ellyn Environmental Commission, which had brought the idea of a composting program to village officials. Glen Ellyn is one of the first communities in DuPage County to start a curbside composting program.

"We wanted to provide a way for people to compost organics, if they did not have the space or desire to do it in their backyards," Umlauf said. "Also, we wanted to reduce the amount of material that goes into landfills."

The program has been more popular than village officials anticipated. As of last week, a total of 203 households were participating in the program, or about 2.7 percent of the total households in the village.

"It has been a great success," village communications coordinator Megan Plahm said in an email. "When launched back in April, the goal was to have 75 to 100 households participate in this first pilot year."

Residents who sign up for the program have the option of selecting a 35-gallon, 65-gallon or 95-gallon wheeled cart for composting. The monthly cost varies from $11.31 a month to $17.40 a month. Those participating in the program also receive a small kitchen composting container and a supply of biodegradable bag liners to use within their home.

Umlauf said she would like to create even more interest in composting by expanding the program to include Glen Ellyn schools.

"If the students learn about new practices that are available and learn new information, then they bring it to their families and they initiate change," she said.

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Know more

Information about Glen Ellyn's curbside composting program is available at the village's website at glenellyn.org/composting.