Middle school students stand up for recycling

OAKWOOD – About 20 Oakwood Junior High students were going door to door Monday afternoon, asking residents if they want recycling and would pay a couple dollars for it.

Oakwood student council member Lane Bennett hopes so, because he's passionate enough about recycling that he took the cause to an Oakwood Village Board meeting. He presented research about recycling and made a case for the village to start a program, especially now that the Vermilion County Health Department is dropping its recycling program at the end of this week.

"It's important to our Earth to maintain our natural resources," Bennett said Monday, just before he and his classmates began canvassing Oakwood, surveying anyone they could find at home about whether they would support a recycling program.

If it weren't for Bennett and his classmates, Oakwood probably wouldn't even be considering a recycling program.

Oakwood Village Board member Doit Roberts said he brought up the idea of Oakwood providing its own recycling site last year when the state considered closing Kickapoo State Park, which has the nearest recycling bin.

But Roberts said the discussion went nowhere.

That changed when Bennett and his classmates went to the village board. Roberts was impressed with the students' presentation.

"All the board was real pleased with the way they conducted themselves. They had really done their homework and were well prepared," Roberts said. "They had a good selling case."

Their case was good enough that the board asked the students to find out what residents think. So with the help of teachers, the students organized a survey and spent Monday afternoon after school asking residents if they would support recycling with a $2 fee.

"I would sure like to see it done," Roberts said of recycling in Oakwood, but added that there are a lot of questions. During the meeting with the students, Roberts said the village board discussed adding a $2 fee to water bills that could support a recycling drop-off site in Oakwood.

Roberts said one of the concerns is regulating the site, so that people from outside Oakwood wouldn't drop off materials, increasing the cost of hauling away the material.

As the county health department winds down its recycling program this week, other cities and towns in Vermilion County have informally discussed starting recycling but have some of the same concerns as Oakwood.

For 10 years, the Vermilion County Health Department has operated a drop-off recycling program with seven sites around the county. But the landfill- and state-generated funds the health department uses for that program have decreased, so the bins will be removed at the end of this month.

Last week, Vermilion County Recycling Coordinator Lynn Wolgamot, who has spearheaded the program since its inception, spoke to all the county mayors about retaining recycling in their communities.

Georgetown Mayor Dennis Lucas attended the meeting and said there have been informal discussions in Georgetown, but regulating who drops off material and the cost of adding the service are two of the main reasons it's not feasible.

Lucas said even if Georgetown wanted to add a fee to residents' water bills, Georgetown is not a home-rule municipality and may not be able to do that without asking for voter approval.

"No one wants to see it close," he said of the county recycling site in Georgetown. "But how do you pay for it, and how do you regulate it? It's a tough one. I hate to see it end, because I use it myself, and every bit I've been putting in it will now go in the garbage and will go to the landfill."

Lucas said he knows the people want it, but he's not sure they would want to pay for it, "especially with this economy the way it is," he said.

Bennett said he's hopeful that he and his classmates would find out during their survey that Oakwood residents want recycling and are willing to pay for it.

Oakwood students Carli Burris and Alyssa Cornett surveyed Yvonne Hicks at home Monday, and Hicks said she uses the county drop-off sites occasionally and would be willing to pay for a local site. Hicks said she's glad the students are getting involved.

"I think it's a good project for them," she said.

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