US EPA Grant Funds Recycling Education

In the First-of-its-kind effort Will County joined several other Collar Counties (DuPage, Kane, McHenry, the Solid Waste Agency of Lake county and Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County) to submit a grant request under the Metropolitian Mayors Caucus.

In a highly competitive situation, the U.S. EPA awarded the group the largestt U.S. EPA Recycling Education and Outreach grant to the state in over 30 years. The group aims to increase recyclables’ tonnage by 15% before 2030

On Oct. 20, 2025 Leaders with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus (MMC), a partnership of 275 local governments in Metro Chicago, announced the kickoff of “Feed the Cart.” 

The recycling campaign will cover six of the state’s most populous counties: Cook (including Chicago) (5 million people), DuPage (900,000), Kane (500,000), Lake (700,000), McHenry (300,000) and Will counties (700,000).

The campaign’s aim is to increase recycling tonnage across the Chicago metro region by 15% before 2030.

Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns, Caucus Environment and Energy Committee Chairman and Immediate Past Executive Board Chairman, speaks during a press conference for the kickoff of the “Feed the Cart” recycling education and outreach campaign on Oct. 20, 2025. Other speakers at the press conference (from left to right) included Recycle Coach President Jeff Galad, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) Executive Director Christina Seibert, LRS Senior Vice President of Environmental Health & Safety and Sustainability Patrick Whalen, Cook County Commissioner Dr. Kisha McCaskill, City of Chicago Deputy Commissioner Policy & Sustainability Department of Streets & Sanitation Chris Sauve, NASCAR Chicago President Julie Giese, and ALDI Director of Sustainability Emily Wiora.

“Every bottle, box, and can we recycle brings us one step closer to a sustainable Chicagoland where both the environment and our communities thrive,” said Kevin Burns, City of Geneva Mayor and Chairman of the MMC’s Environment and Energy Committee.

“We are excited to introduce our campaign that will remind everyone how simple and important it is to recycle properly. By increasing our recycling rate, we not only conserve natural resources but also generate significant economic benefits, supporting thousands of jobs and injecting billions of dollars into our economy,” Burns said.

The announcement came during a press conference at the Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS) Exchange, the $50 million state-of-the-art material recovery facility located in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago. The Exchange is nationally heralded for revolutionizing waste management and recycling practices, playing a pivotal role in enhancing waste diversion efforts in the Chicagoland area.

“The ‘Feed the Cart’ campaign we’re rolling out here at LRS today will inspire all Chicagoland residents to want to do their part. Recycling is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do,” said LRS Senior Vice President of Environmental Health & Safety and Sustainability Patrick Whalen.

“It’s time for each of us to step up our efforts and increase the quantity and quality of recycling in every Chicagoland home and business,” Whalen said.

The MMC and its Chicago Metro Recycling Education and Outreach (REO) campaign partners, including the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) and the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO) as well as DuPage, Kane, McHenry, and Will counties, were awarded a $2 million grant in 2024 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promote recycling education and outreach — the largest allocation of its kind to Illinois in more than three decades.

“Chicagoland’s commitment to recycling is shaping a cleaner, more resilient future,” said Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County Executive Director Christina Seibert.

“We know Chicagoland residents want to recycle the right way, and through our ‘Feed the Cart’ campaign and recycling infrastructure investments, we are providing them with the knowledge and tools to do just that,” Seibert said.

Recycling programs in the Chicago area are well-established, as surveys show a majority of residents embrace recycling as a daily sustainability action they can take.

The total amount of regional recyclable materials collected in 2024 was nearly 573,000 tons — which is the equivalent of filling Soldier Field with recyclables an estimated 6 times, or the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet full of recyclables to a height of about 57 feet high, and would weigh the equivalent of nearly three Willis Towers.

At the same time, the diversion rates in the Chicagoland region are stalled at 30-35%.

While this is on par with the national average of 32%, it is not sufficient to meet either the EPA’s National Recycling Goal of 50% by 2030 or the Metro counties’ individual diversion goals. In addition, data show that contamination in Chicagoland’s recycling stream is a significant problem, which increases the cost of recycling that is borne by municipalities and residents.

Officials at today’s press event introduced “Loop,” a cartoon-like mascot that will serve as the recycling campaign’s education champion. The goals of the campaign are to:

    Engage Chicagoland residents by promoting the environmental and economic benefits of recycling.
    Educate residents to increase recycling and reduce contamination at the community level.
    Improve the quality of materials placed into the recycling stream throughout the region, resulting in a less contaminated, more marketable stream of recyclables.
    Encourage residents and businesses to “buy recycled,” to seek out products made from recycled material or packaged in post-consumer recycled content.

Education tactics for the “Feed the Cart” campaign will include marketing, a new website —FeedTheCart.org — and social media presence, advertising, public relations, and grassroots, community-level outreach.

Chicago-based media company Clear Channel Outdoor, for example, is bestowing the largest charitable gift in its 124-year history in support of the recycling awareness push by donating “Feed the Cart” billboard placements that will appear along Chicagoland commuter rails, major interstates, and surface streets.

Examples of grassroots activities that align with the “Feed the Cart” campaign and were highlighted during the press conference include:

    Cook County Commissioner Dr. Kisha McCaskill announced the vision for moving forward with the introduction of the first-in-community-history curbside recycling rollout in Posen, Phoenix and Dixmoor, funded with a $1 million grant from the Cook County Department of Environment and Sustainability as part of a plan to expand recycling in a dozen municipalities that lack curbside recycling.
    “We all know recycling helps us keep our communities beautiful. Now, with the debut of ‘Feed the Cart,’ Chicagoland gets to be a larger part of that beautiful story,” McCaskill said.

    Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County Executive Director Christina Seibert and MMC Board Member touted an innovative push funded through an MMC grant to boost curbside recycling among residents in North Chicago, Waukegan and Zion neighborhoods that’s kicked off this month.
    “The MMC and community leaders are urging residents to improve their efforts through such activities as recycling cart checking and tagging programs that provide real-time feedback and promote proper recycling habits, modifying and expanding educational resources to serve a wider, multilingual audience, and through community education and outreach aimed at reducing contamination and increasing recycling participation,” Seibert said.

    NASCAR Chicago President Julie Giese outlined NASCAR’s ongoing commitment to sustainability when racing returns to Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet on Independence Day weekend in 2026, marking the track’s first NASCAR Cup Series race since 2019.
    “As part of our long-term goal of achieving net-zero operating emissions by 2035, NASCAR will continue expanding its recycling and waste reduction programs in 2026,” Giese said. “As NASCAR prepares to return to Chicagoland Speedway for the first time since 2019, sustainability efforts like composting and recycling will be part of the event operations plan from day one.

    Batavia-based ALDI Director of Sustainability Emily Wiora highlighted efforts to minimize waste and create a more sustainable future across ALDI operations.

    The City of Chicago’s Department of Streets & Sanitation announced a new partnership with the Chicago Transit Authority to feature public service announcements on its trains and buses featuring Loop that promote the “Feed the Cart” message.
    “We are committed to informing and inspiring more people than ever before throughout the Chicagoland region about how to recycle better,” said City of Chicago Deputy Commissioner Policy & Sustainability Department of Streets & Sanitation Chris Sauve. “Increasing recycling and improving the quality of materials we’re recycling not only improves the health of our environment, but it also saves energy, reduces water use, decreases greenhouse gases, conserves resources and translates into local jobs.”

    Recycle Coach President Jeff Galad announced the progress his company has made to advance Illinois residents’ understanding of how to properly recycle and dispose of household materials since partnering last fall with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) to provide residents access to digital technology aimed at increasing and improving recycling across the state.
    “Illinois is setting a new standard – with industry-leading technology and one of the most robust recycling marketing campaigns, Chicagoland’s ‘Feed the Cart’ campaign will be studied across the nation,” Galad said. “We’re thrilled to be working alongside the IEPA, MMC and its leadership.”

The MMC will measure the impact of the three-year campaign and issue a report with its results upon completion in 2027.