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Illinois EPA Bringing Recycle
Coach to All Illinois Communities
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 [January 17, 2025]
SPRINGFIELD —Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency (Illinois EPA) Director James Jennings has announced a new
partnership with Recycle Coach to provide all Illinois residents in
6,835 units of local government a holistic, locally-tailored, easy
to access recycling education platform. In the coming months,
Recycle Coach will be engaging counties and municipalities across
the state to ensure all Illinois residents are afforded the
opportunity to have their community participate in this opportunity.
Use of the program will decrease inbound contamination at material
recovery facilities in Illinois, increase the amount of material
diverted from Illinois landfills, prevent environmental
contamination, and ultimately reduce emissions that contribute to
climate change.
“The Illinois EPA is excited to offer this innovative
technology that will provide all Illinois residents with advanced
and easily accessible tools to allow them to increase and improve
recycling throughout our communities,” said Illinois EPA Director
James Jennings. “We look forward to partnering with Recycle Coach to
make this tool available to all Illinois residents, which will help
expand the amount of recyclable materials diverted from Illinois
landfills.”
As part of this partnership, Recycle Coach will
onboard all units of local government so their residents may
leverage collection calendars, notifications, and reminders along
with the free Recycle Coach mobile app and a web widget placement on
the local government website. These assets will feature real-time,
searchable information about local waste and recycling programs, and
will be available in multiple languages.
Local government staff can leverage robust analytics and marketing
resources to improve communication and engagement about waste and
recycling.
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Increasing the volume of materials recycled reduces the amount
of greenhouse gases generated by Illinois landfills. In
addition, by empowering residents with community specific
knowledge about their waste and accurate recycling options at
their fingertips, the amount of contamination in Illinois
waterways and on the land from waste mishandling will decrease
significantly.
As of
January, five counties/solid waste agencies have finished onboarding
and are now live. This includes DuPage, Kane, Tazewell, along with
the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO) and the Solid Waste
Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC). Various municipalities have
also onboarded, along with the City of Chicago.
To date, Recycle Coach is roughly available to 27% of the Illinois
Population. That number is expected grow to 63% by the end of the
first quarter of 2025.
Recycle Coach is available at no cost to Illinois communities. Local
governments can request an on-boarding meeting by emailing
successgroup@recyclecoach.com. A secure web app will be provided for
municipal waste websites, and once the local government has
onboarded, residents will be encouraged to download the free Recycle
Coach app.
[Kim Biggs
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency]
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