Beyond Green Team
There are many ways you can make an environmental impact on your own from recycling hard-to-recycle items, composting, and planting native plants. Check out the resources below to help you get started!
Kane County Recycling Center
517 E Fabyan Pkwy., Geneva, IL
Open to the public M-F, 8am-4pm. The center accepts a variety of items year round including:
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electronics
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clothing
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shoes
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appliances
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A full list of accepted items can be found here.
Dart Container Corp. Foam Recycling
310 Evergreen Dr., N. Aurora, IL
24/7 drop-off. Acceptable items include both food service foam and packing foam. Look for the #6 in the chasing arrows to confirm it can be recycled. Foam does need to be bagged to keep it from blowing out of the collection bins.
TerraCycle Free Recycling Programs
TerraCycle offers a wide variety of free recycling programs that you can participate in on your own. Some of the many different recycling programs include:
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Small sauce packets (Hot Sauce, Ketchup, etc.)
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Some programs will allow you to earn points that can be turned into monetary donations for various organizations. HC Storm is an official recipient of funds through TerraCycle!
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A full list of free programs can be found here.
Plastic Bag Recycling
Trex sponsors year-round bag recycling with collection bins available at many local retailers. In the Tri-cities, drop bins can be found at Jewel, Kohl’s, Fresh Thyme and Meijer.
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Additional details for what can and cannot be recycled through this program can be found here.
Stopping Food Waste
Across the United States, food waste costs the average household of 4 over $1500 each year! In addition, food waste is responsible for about 58% of the methane released from landfills greatly accelerating the rate of climate change.
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The good news is that tackling the issue of food waste is something we all can do! The first step to understanding how much food your family is wasting is to take a closer look at everything your family throws away over the course of 1 week. By tracking the kinds of food and the amount thrown away, your family can then talk about ways to cut down on your food waste.
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Brainstorming ways to reduce future food waste as a family will help get everyone motivated to find ways to help the family meet their goals and save food and money!
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Ready to start tracking your family's food waste? Here is a Food Waste Tracker template that you can print out as an easy way for your family to record food items that are discarded.
Composting
Composting is an easy way to keep food scraps and spoiled food from the landfill. Composting is as simple as piling up leaves, grass clippings and food scraps in an area of your yard - no special equipment required! However, if you have pets that you want to keep away from the compost, you can build a simple wooden box to contain it or fence it it with chicken wire. Depending on how quickly you want the materials to break down will determine how much time you want to tend to the pile - you can turn it over once a week or not at all! Nature will do its thing and break down these items all by itself.
Do you want to learn more about the ins and outs of composting? You can find more composting basics here.
Planting Natives
Adding native plants to your yard will help support a wide variety of local organisms by providing food and shelter. Native plants are well adapted to our local environment which means that once they are established they do not need to be watered! They also never need to be fertilized!
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There are many local organizations that hold yearly native plant sales. These events are also staffed with people knowledgeable about growing native plants that can answer your questions.
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Check these organizations each spring to details about their native plant sales:
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These are just a few of the many native plant sales that happen each spring!
Leave the Leaves
Each fall, leave areas of your yard unraked. Some of the best areas to leave the leaves are garden beds and under trees and shrubs.
These fallen leaves provide shelter through the winter for many beneficial and well-loved insects including fireflies, luna moths, and bumble bee queens. Do not shred your leaves as this will harm these insects!
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These leaves will also provide a food source for birds in winter who eat the insects hiding inside. Leaving dead seed heads on your plants will also feed the birds throughout the winter.
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These leaves will provide an added benefit of moisture retention and weed suppression before they break down. As they break down, they will release nutrients back into the soil.