There's a push in Springfield to create a fund that would make it easier for communities to hold household hazardous waste events, similar to the hugely-successful one in Bloomington-Normal last fall. Walter Willis of Hampshire heads up the Illinois Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America. He says his group has lobbied for the Paint Stewardship Law, which would develop a revenue stream through the sale of paint products that could fund community-wide events.
"Make the manufacturers responsible for the cost of recovering that paint instead of state government. The theory there is and the IPA's (Illinois Paint Association) behind this legislation is that will free up more money for them to have more programs downstate."
Much of the funding for such events has come from government grants that have dried up. Willis says the paint industry supports the effort, but the Illinois Retail Merchants Association is concerned about increasing the cost of paint. Willis says three other states have similar funds, and the average price increase on a gallon of pain is about 75 cents. Willis is among the speakers at this year's Illinois Recycling and Resource Management Conference in Uptown Normal.