As the City Council liaison to trash, I have the opportunity to meet quarterly with our trash hauler, representatives of the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County, and City staff to discuss all things trash. At the most recent meeting, I learned that residential trash and recycling volumes in Highland Park have increased over the past 6 months by about 11%. This makes sense since people are spending more time at home due to the pandemic. Here are some things you can do to help reduce waste and improve recycling:

1. Buy items that have minimal packaging or are packaged in recyclable materials.
2. Do not use plastic bags for your recyclables. Plastic bags and plastic envelopes should not go into your recycling cart. They can get caught in the sorting machinery and contaminate our recycling. You can recycle clean, dry plastic bags and plastic envelopes at local big box and grocery stores. Find the nearest location for plastic film recycling here.
3. Clothing and textiles can be dropped off in the bins at the HP Metra station (east of the tracks and south of the station) or the HP Recycling Center, 1180 Half Day Road, for recycling or reuse. These bins are available 24/7.
4. Clean tin foil should be balled up before being placed in your recycling cart. To be picked up by the sorting equipment, make sure to collect enough foil to make a ball larger than a tennis ball.
5. Lids can stay on the containers placed in your recycle bin. Please rinse out containers before recycling.
6. You can compost your food scraps through the winter. Pick ups are every other Wednesday, and sign up is required. For details and to sign up, click here.

Plastic recycling has been in the news a lot lately. While some haulers are having trouble with plastics, our waste hauler has markets in the US for all the items they currently accept for recycling. For example, #5 plastics are being made into paint buckets. A list of items that are recyclable in Highland Park is here.