EVANSTON CAN RECYCLE!

October is "Evanston Can Recycle!" Month

 

For the second year in a row, the City of Evanston and Keep Evanston Beautiful (KEB) are calling on Evanston residents and businesses to recycle as many aluminum beverage cans as possible during the entire month of October, designated “Evanston CAN Recycle!” month.

 

This year, residents have a new incentive; besides helping the city win money for its recycling program, residents can win new recycling roll carts for their own use.

 

The City is pitting all four garbage/recycling routes against each other; the route that recycles the most aluminum cans during the month of October will win a 65 or 95 gallon recycling roll cart for each of its residential customers.

 

Evanston community members don’t need to do anything extraordinary; simply make certain all of their aluminum cans are placed in recycling containers* throughout the entire month of October. Groot, the City’s recycling hauler, will sort and weigh the aluminum cans.

 

Community members and organizations with large quantities of cans to recycle can make use of strategically placed dumpsters to participate in the refuse route competition. These recycling dumpsters will be appropriately labeled for the competition.

 

Cans dropped off at the Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Avenue, and placed in the designated recycling dumpster will be counted toward Monday’s route; cans in the dumpster at Chandler-Newberger Center, 1028 Central Street, will be counted toward Tuesday’s route; cans in the dumpster at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Center, 1655 Foster Street, will be counted toward Wednesday’s route; and cans placed at Robert Crown Center, 1701 Main Street, will be counted toward Thursday’s route.

 

Cans dropped off at the Ecology Center, 2024 McCormick Blvd, will be divided up and counted toward all routes.

 

Evanston has accepted the challenge to compete against other municipalities its size in the U.S. Conference of Mayors Cans for Cash program. The monetary prizes of up to $10,000 can be put toward enhancing Evanston’s recycling programs.

Evanston will compete in Division Three against other cities in the country with populations between 50,000 and 99,999. Last year’s winner was Des Plaines, Ill., which recycled 1,120,660 pounds!

     

Community members without residential recycling pickup by Groot are encouraged to drop off their cans at any of the listed recreation centers or make a special effort to bring their aluminum beverage cans to the City’s Recycling Center, 2222 Oakton Street: Fridays, noon to 7 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

 

Though Evanston wasn’t a finalist in the quantity of cans recycled against other Division Three cities in 2007, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Novelis Inc. and Keep America Beautiful, Inc., all sponsors of the Cans for Cash program, awarded $5,000 to the City of Evanston to help enhance its recycling programs, and $2,500 to Keep Evanston Beautiful (KEB), Inc., for the partner’s innovative marketing ideas. 

     

The aluminum can is the country’s most recycled beverage container and has been for more than 20 years.

     

For more information on Evanston CAN Recycle, call the Division of Streets and Sanitation, (847) 866-2940.

 

The refuse/recycling route that recycles the most aluminum cans during the month of October 2008 will win a 65 or 95 gallon recycling roll cart for each of its residential customers.

 

* If your bin is too full, use any open container, including cardboard boxes or paper bags, for the excess materials and set beside your bin. Please don't package materials in plastic bags. Plastic bags are not recycled through the City's curbside pickup program.