There will be no need to recycle those 95-gallon recycling containers in Kankakee.

Based on the Wednesday vote of the Kankakee City Council’s License & Franchise Committee’s unanimous vote on Wednesday, the curbside recycling program will stay in place with contractor Republic Services.

The committee, chaired by 6th Ward Alderwoman Kelly Johnson, recommended the council approve a five-year contract with the city’s longtime waste hauler.

An option to eliminate curbside recycling would have resulted in very little savings, so it was decided by the six committee members to keep it in place.

The city administration will now negotiate the final details with Republic Services, of Phoenix, Ariz., based on its committee proposal.

The Republic proposal was one of two the city received. A second proposal came from United Disposal, a Bradley-based operator owned by Bradley Mayor Mike Watson.

The current Republic contract expires on Dec. 31. The committee’s recommendation will go before the 14-member city council at its Dec. 15 meeting.

If the city had decided to go with the proposal that did not include curbside recycling, it would have basically saved residents a total of about $15 a year.

Mayor Chris Curtis, and City Manager Elizabeth Kubal did not view that small savings as being significant enough to forego curbside recycling. The administration recommended staying with the recycling program.

Curtis explained the monthly savings would have needed to be in the $4- to $5-a-month range to make it appealing to go away from the recycling program, which collects recycling materials two times a month.

The Republic proposal to eliminate curbside recycling would have saved residents a little more than $1 a month.

The contract provides waste collection from about 7,000 units in Kankakee.

While final costs will now be put together, the monthly residential charge will be in the range of $25 in the contract’s first year.

The United Disposal proposal with curbside recycling would have had costs to residents closer to $40.

As talks of this contract began a few weeks ago, it was clearly stated the vast majority of city dwellings do not participate in recycling or do not properly recycle.

A significant amount of collected recycling – as much as 80% to 85%, officials said – ends up in the landfill because it is considered contaminated.

Contaminated recycling simply means either inappropriate materials were included in the recycling bins or “dirty” recycled material was included.

By “dirty,” official referred to items such as greasing cardboard pizza boxes or aluminum foil with food residue.

According to The Recycling Partnership report in 2024, only about 21% of all recyclable materials are captured, with a significant portion lost at the household level.

The recycling market has gone through a depression during the course of the past two decades as the costs associated with it have risen and manufacturers have found it less expensive to work with raw materials.