La Salle receives $55,000 to reduce residents’ garbage bill

La Salle residents can look forward to paying less than initially thought on their garbage bill when the switch from Republic Services to Lakeshore Recycling Systems takes place Feb. 1.

The city recently received a $55,500 grant from The Recycling Partnership and the American Beverage’s Every Bottle Back initiative, and the council voted to approve the grant agreement Monday night. The money will go directly towards reducing residents’ garbage bill come February and will help offset the costs increase of the switch in providers.

The grant the city received is geared toward communities like La Salle that haven’t made the switch to larger garbage bins. The grant money is intended to pay for the recycling bins so every household has one and can recycle. Deputy Clerk Brent Bader said the idea is if all the people in a community are automatically provided a recycling bin, they are more likely to use it.

“Bins lead to more recycling,” Bader said. “It’s their philosophy that by providing these bins it will lead to more recycling.”

The recycling cart investment is being made as part of the “Every Bottle Back” initiative, a beverage industry-led effort to reduce the industry’s plastic footprint, in collaboration with The Recycling Partnership and the Illinois Beverage Association.

The Recycling Partnership is a private organization that invests money into communities to boost recycling and sustainability projects. Its goal is to increase recycling through providing grants, tools, partnerships and research.

“American Beverage is excited to be supportive of an upgrade to La Salle’s recycling infrastructure through the ‘Every Bottle Back’ initiative,” said Katherine Lugar, president and chief executive officer of American Beverage. “By providing residents with new high-capacity carts, we hope to increase recycling rates and modernize the community’s collection system. The beverage industry is committed to reducing our plastic footprint and this investment will be instrumental in helping do just that.”

This unique partnership will benefit more than 9,300 La Salle residents and, over the next decade, is expected to bring nearly 6.5 million new pounds of recyclable materials into the collection stream, according to a press release from the Illinois Beverage Association.

La Salle Mayor Jeff Grove called the grant “great news” for the residents and the city. The final cost of residents’ garbage bill with LRS is not yet finalized. However, there will be an inevitable increase compared to what residents’ are paying now because of the need to switch to bins.

“We’re on the cusp of finding out what that final number will be, but this (grant) will bring that number down,” Bader said.

A number on how much residents’ garbage bill will increase will be finalized and announced in the next few weeks, Bader said.