Written by Cecilia Carman
We all live in McHenry County, but it doesn’t mean we are all the same. Where you live can determine how “green” you can be. We all have a hauler that takes our garbage and recycling, but what else can they do for us? If you are lucky to have Flood Brothers or Prairieland Disposal, you should be offered curbside composting. But they do not automatically provide this service. Many may compost in their backyard, but not every resident wants to keep their scraps, or there may be food items that just take too long to decompose in a residential compost bin. Who your town decides to contract with is decided by your Public Works Department, and then approved by your Village Board. These contracts can be 3-5 years and normally not amended.
Lake in the Hills residents can place their food scraps in their yard waste if they call Flood Brothers and sign up at no additional cost. Cary also uses Flood Brothers, but they do not have this service because the town didn’t sign up for it. Cary residents need to speak to their Village Board to gain access to curbside composting.
Prairieland Disposal is offering curbside composting in every town they serve. Crystal Lake is taking it one step further: since yard waste is not collected year round, they have asked Prairieland to offer curbside composting all year ‘round. Residents will have to pay a fee for winter pick up, but it seems like a great service.
For our McHenry residents who use Groot, you have an interesting dilemma. There are six service areas, and they all do not provide the same services. The towns of Volo, Round Lake, Bull Valley, and Prairie Grove do have curbside composting, but the towns of Algonquin and Barrington Hills do not. I did not investigate if these towns can change their service area, but they can change their hauler. For the rest of McHenry County, you are serviced by Waste Management, Marengo Disposal, MDC, or Lake Disposal. None of these companies offer curbside composting.
Reducing our waste by composting is high on the list for our Waste Reduction Team. We would like to see all our towns provided with curbside composting to make it easy and convenient for everyone. Many of us have new elected officials, and I challenge you to email or attend a Village Board Meeting and ask if your town can have curbside composting. Now, curbside electronic recycling is a whole other topic we can tackle next time.
Grow, Eat, Compost, Repeat!
