For the first time this summer, visitors to the county’s forest preserves can recycle bottles and cans almost as easily as they do in their own homes.
With the aid of a $24,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources, specially designed recycling containers have been placed near garbage receptacles at all 28 forest preserves in Kane County.
According to Kane County Recycling Coordinator Gary Mielke, the countywide project is the most comprehensive recycling effort ever attempted on public land in Illinois.
“Our goal is we want to reinforce recycling behavior wherever garbage is produced,” Mielke said. “The thought is that now that everybody in Kane has recycling in their homes, and increasingly so in businesses, we want to look at recycling in public places.
“It’s not just something you do at home, it’s something you do everywhere.”
Mielke said recycling in public places is often tricky because people toss non-recyclable garbage into recycling containers. The bins are designed to accept aluminum cans, glass bottles and plastic soft drink and water bottles.
Recycling bins are also in place at the Forest Preserve District-owned Elfstrom Stadium, home of the Kane County Cougars, and at Settler’s Hill Golf Course, both in Geneva.
About 1.4 million people use the county’s forest preserves each year, said Forest Preserve Commission President Jack Cook.