Kane County staff confirm USDA composting grant and explore statewide battery-recycling rollout

Kane County recycling staff on June 13 confirmed that USDA composting and food-waste grant funds have been released, setting in motion subaward agreements and pilot work the county previously authorized conditionally.

Claire Ryan told the committee the grant release allows the county to proceed with subaward agreements and that a small portion of her salary will be funded under the grant for roughly two years. "I'll just be working with the state's attorney's office to show them that, yes, in fact, the money is here, and then we can start the subaward agreements," Ryan said.

Ryan also reported two recent recycling events: a shredding and recycling collection at the Circuit Clerk's building that served about 725 cars, and a pop-up event in North Aurora that served about 150 cars and filled the county's box truck twice.

On battery recycling, Ryan described meetings with Call2Recycle, a nonprofit that organizes battery recycling programs funded by manufacturers. She said Illinois adopted a battery stewardship act and the Call2Recycle program will begin Jan. 1 next year, providing free recycling for consumer dry-cell batteries statewide. Ryan said Elgin Township has been a local leader: it shipped about 22,000 pounds of batteries last year and would be a candidate for a county pilot program at the Fabian Recycling Site, potentially using IEPA grant funds and a county partnership to test statewide implementation before the law takes effect.

Ryan cautioned the county is working with Call2Recycle and the state to determine operational details; she said the county is trying to connect the nonprofit, township partners and state grant resources to stand up a pilot but could not guarantee timing.