McLean County generated 193,102 tons of municipal solid waste in 2019, according to the Ecology Action Center in Normal. That includes 104,772 tons of trash headed to the landfill and 88,330 tons that were recycled. That’s the first time that total amount of waste dipped below 200,000 tons in the county since 2013.
Ecology Action Center Executive Director Michael Brown said lower-density waste is one reason why tonnage is down. “All of the convenience packing that (we) used to see in the 1980s and ’90s, especially before there were recycling programs for most of those materials, we’ve gotten away from some of that,” Brown said. “But also, the fact that a lot of those materials are now much lighter than they were in the past.”
Brown said waste totals often are tied to the economy — tougher economic times lead to less consumption. He said it’s too early to predict how the pandemic and resulting recession have impacted recycling because more people are working from home. “You can look at this in many different ways, in terms of waste and every usage, pollution, all the different environmental factors that have been displaced from where they were a year ago at this time,” Brown said.
The recycling rate essentially held steady at 46% in 2019. Brown said the goal is to reach 50%. “That’s a slight dip from 2018 to 2019 (46.4% to 45.7%). That to me is not as significant as the overall trend,” Brown said. “If we were to make a trend line from 2000 to 2019, we definitely are seeing an upward growth trend in recycling.”