Oak Park’s village board reviewed findings from a study of residents’ waste disposal habits as part of a reflection on the village’s progress towards its environmental sustainability goals.
Last year, the village commissioned a study from SCS Engineers on Oak Parker’s waste disposal habits and attitudes on garbage, recycling and compost collection. The study involved SCS Engineers staff analyzing waste collected from Oak Park single-family homes and small apartment buildings that had been brought to Lakeshore Recycling System’s facility in nearby Maywood over the summer.
“At the end of the day, this study is really powerful because it gives you a lot of information about what’s going on in the community, and that’s not something most communities have,” said Richard Southorn, a VP at SCS Engineers. “You can see the vision and leadership of Oak Park come through the data. Oak Park has been a community that’s really strived to push sustainability, push to be environmentally responsible, and that is born out in the data where you’re beating out the averages.”
The study found that Oak Parkers are doing a better job of recycling and composting correctly, diverting waste out of landfills and creating less waste altogether when compared to the national average and the average for Cook County’s suburbs.
“The village is generating less waste per person, per year, than the national average and the suburban Cook County average, which is a great place to start,” said Spencer LaBelle of SCS Engineers. “A great foundation has been built within the village through programs maintained currently. In addition, I want to point out that recycling contamination is about half the national average, which is a key indicator that people in the village know what they should and should not be recycling.”
But Oak Parkers still have room for improvement, the study found. Over a third of all garbage collected in the village is either paper or plastic, most of which can be recycled through existing village programs, according to the study. Likewise, 35% of the garbage collected could’ve been composted, according to the consultants.
Southorn said he hopes the village will use the study’s results as a “benchmark” to improve its waste collection programs even further.
“With those types of things, I hope the village will take the time to digest what this data is showing and compare it to what the goals and objectives are, so you can figure out what programs are really working well and what can be tweaked and fine-tuned to get better results,” Southorn said.
The study also included a survey of over 1,100 village residents which polled Oak Parkers on their attitudes around waste disposal which found “strong environmental awareness and participation” among residents. The survey found that 99% of Oak Parkers recycle regularly and that 89% feel neutral, satisfied or very satisfied with village garbage collection, according to the survey.
The study was commissioned to support the village’s Climate Ready Oak Park plan, which seeks to eliminate 60% of Oak Park’s carbon emissions by 2030 with an eye to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.