Once a week, Republic Services traverses Forest Park to pick up residents’ trash and recycling. Between April 1 and Nov. 30., the waste hauler also picks up yard waste and, for an additional $122.91 a season, a 95-gallon bin for personal organics disposal.
As the village’s agreement with Republic Services expires at the end of April, commissioners unanimously approved a resolution at the Jan. 12 council meeting that authorizes a request for proposals for residential municipal waste, recycling and landscape waste collection services. The village is seeking a new, five-year collection agreement, with a potential one-to-three-year extension, beginning May 1, 2026.
At the Jan. 12 council meeting, Commissioner Michelle Melin-Rogovin said, “Residents have talked to us about their interest in recycling and composting, and we’re definitely incorporating and looking at that feedback.”
Melin-Rogovin later told the Review that, since Republic Services started offering organics collection in Forest Park in 2022, several residents have asked her for a more user-friendly composting option. She has heard feedback that includes the desire for a year-round program, bins that are smaller and easier to clean, and a way for residents to get back their organic waste as compost to use in their gardens.
“I would really love to see us have village-supported compost pickup available,” said Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, who’s been a Forest Park resident for 8 years. “And I’d love for that to be, not only for individual residences, but also for people who live in condo buildings or apartment buildings because typically they have a different waste hauler.”
For one season, Bloyd-Peshkin used Republic Services’ organic collection service, splitting the cost and bin space with her neighbor. But she wanted a year-round service instead. Now, she and five of her neighbors’ households share a 32-gallon bin that is picked up every other week by The Urban Canopy Compost Club.
“It’s actually perfect for our needs,” Bloyd-Peshkin said. In the 8 months that she and her neighbors have been using Urban Canopy, they have diverted 1,470 pounds of organic material from the waste stream. “Multiply that by the number of people in Forest Park, and this could have a huge impact.”
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, landfills produce methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
“It’s one of those small things that could be a really big thing,” Bloyd-Peshkin said. But when it comes to reducing the amount of waste in landfills, she added, “not a lot of people are going to turn to an external vendor” like Urban Canopy.
According to Village Administrator Rachell Entler, about a dozen people use Republic Services’ add-on organics disposal. She told the Review that the village has asked those who are submitting waste collection proposals to price composting services as an add-on cost, so that households can decide if they want to pay an additional fee.
Melin-Rogovin told the Review that not all the village’s request for proposals must include composting, and that she’s researching separate providers whose services can be incorporated into waste hauler’s offerings.
“They would still most likely be an add-on service that residents would opt into, but they would offer more of the needs and services that residents are wanting,” Melin-Rogovin told the Review. She added that there would likely be an education component for built-in waste collection services after a provider is chosen, along with information about other available options.
“We want this to be cost effective, easy to use and responsive to residents’ needs, but we also need to make sure that residents are aware of exactly how to use it,” Melin-Rogovin said.
If the village gets a new compost service, “It becomes the responsibility of the Environmental Control Commission and the village to educate people about what they can compost,” said Bloyd-Peshkin, who is on the ECC. “And we know that’s doable because we’ve accomplished it with recycling pretty well.”