Shorewood became the first North Shore community to adopt a permanent organics collection program. For just over a year, the Village has been administering a pilot program that incorporates 100 households who pay to have kitchen scraps and yard waste collected. This material is composted and made available to several local gardeners and businesses while diverting waste from our landfills.
What does it mean that the program is now permanent?
- The Village will now be opening up to 200 more spots every year for more residents to participate.
- The Village will pay for the 35-gallon organics collection cart to be used for kitchen scraps and yard waste. The Village is also paying a $1.20 subsidy per month per participant to incentivize the program.
- Carts are picked up weekly (Thursdays) from April to November and biweekly from December to March.
- Those that want to sign-up and join the program starting January 1, 2019 must fill out the registration form (printable or online version). Rates decrease as more participants join the program. Rates can be found on page 2 of the registration forms.
The organics collection program is an excellent example of the importance of the visioning process and community members-Village officials taking the time to come together to execute a strong program. The idea of an organics collection program was first mentioned in the Sustainability Action Plan adopted by the Village Board in 2012. This concept was then called out and identified in the Vision 2025 Plan, which was adopted in 2015. The Conservation Committee worked on a specific program design with staff, and the Village Board approved the pilot program back in early 2017. In a one year span of the current pilot program of only 100 participants, the community diverted over 69,440 pounds of waste from local landfills. Hopefully this program continues to do wonderful things for the environment while providing an important service for community members.
If you are looking for more information in regards to the program, click here.