Treasure In Trash: Niles Earned $21,837 from Recycling

Guess what--your old newspapers, cans and other recyclables are worth money.

$21, 837 for the six months from November to April, to be exact.

That's the amount the Village of Niles took in from the recyclables it gathered from residents.

Groot Industries Inc., a waste disposal company, pays the Solid Waste Agency of Cook County (SWANCC) for recyclable materials that its member municipalities, of which Niles is one, collect from residents. 

Niles Trustee Louella Preston, who sits on the SWANCC board, announced the payment to Niles at the June 26 village board meeting.

"So I encourage you to do more recycling," she told the audience. 

Unfortunately, SWANCC statistics indicate the trend is that residents in Niles and other municipalities are recycling less, not more.

Niles earned $44,855 in fiscal year 2009 through this recycling rebate  program, $9,412.92 in fiscal year 2010 and $27,128 in fiscal year 2011. The payments do not correlate exactly to the number of tons of recyclables provided because the market rate for various recycled materials varies from year to year.

Preston would like to see residents increase the quantity of material they put in their recycling bins.

"It does pay to recycle," she said.