Recipient Organization
COOK COUNTY
69 W WASHINGTON ST STE 1900
CHICAGO,IL 60602
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Cook County is the second-most-populous county in the United States. With a population of 5.2 million residents, Cook County is the home to over 40% of the state's population. Cook County demographics include: 760,000 residents who are food insecure; over 35% of the homes speak languages other than English; 13% of the population is living in poverty; 6.7% of the adult population is unemployed.The Cook County Department of Environment & Sustainability (DES) has planning and regulatory authority over suburban Cook County, including 133 municipalities. DES has been a regional leader advocating for diverting materials, especially food scraps, away from regional landfills for over a decade. The updated "Cook County Solid Waste Management Plan 2024-2029: The Path Toward Zero Waste and A Circular Economy" provides DES the roadmap to dramatically reduce the climate impacts caused by landfilled waste and provides direction for DES's waste prevention, reduction, reassembly, remanufacturing, reuse, repair, repurpose, recycling, composting, collection and other solid waste related investments, policies and practices over the next five years. The update plan promotes and advances the EPA Wasted Food Scale recommendations. These recommendations provide alternatives to landfilling, such as: (1) preventing wasted food, (2) feeding people through donations or upcycle activities, (3) feeding animals, (4) composting and (5) anaerobic digestion. DES commits to ensure that all municipalities in the county have access to a food composting related program by 2030.According to the IL EPA, food scraps comprise about 20% of municipal solid waste in IL landfills. This would mean that based on 2022 Cook County landfill tonnage data and using the EPA WARM tool to estimate GHG emissions, Cook County transferred an estimated 311,386 tons of food scraps to landfills in 2022. This generated 156,148.32 MTCO2E. When analyzing the regional makeup of this data (northern suburbs, western suburbs, southern suburbs, and the City of Chicago), DES found that the south suburbs transferred an estimated 56,984.4 tons of food scraps to landfills. This generated 28,575.52 MTCO2E.Unlike the City of Chicago and many municipalities in the northern and western suburbs of Cook County, there are currently no municipal food scrap composting programs (i.e., food scrap composting drop-off site, curbside food scrap composting program and/or comingled yard waste and food scrap program) for any of the fifty-one (51) south suburban municipalities. To address these environmental and regional problems, Cook County will create the 1st food scrap drop-off program for south suburbs municipalities. This program includes establishing a permanent drop-off site for south suburban residents to dispose of their food scraps, providing free food scrap containers to the first 1,400 residents who sign up for the program, providing free food scrap carts for the first 100 colleges, public schools, public libraries and non-profits that sign-up for this program, and establishing a paid student internship program that will help conduct outreach in support of this program. Finally, Cook County will create one of the largest food waste prevention and diversion marketing campaigns for the entire County. This campaign will help educate all Cook County residents about the importance of food waste prevention, as well as promote alternatives to help divert food waste from regional landfills.The drop-off program will have the capability of diverting at least 200 tons of food scraps away from regional landfills. Using the EPA Waste Reduction Model (WARM) tool, this would eliminate nearly 70 MTCOSE annually. The drop-off program advances racial equity and environmental justice by serving municipalities whose population consists mostly of African Americans and Latino Americans. The drop-off program is also targeting municipalities that have high CDC EJI scores and high Cook County SVI scores. Thus, the 1,500 free food scrap carts and containers that will be provided as part of this program will be going to these same residents or institutions that serve these residents. The food scraps collected from the drop-off program will be sent to an anaerobic digester that will use that material to create nutrient-dense compost that will be used at local urban farms that provide healthy food and no or very little cost to mostly Black and Latino residents, who live in communities plagued with food deserts.The marketing campaign will help the entire county reduce food being wasted and landfilled. Thus, helping to reduce the region's carbon emissions. The marketing campaign will also provide all residents, especially those who live in EJI communities, the necessary information and tools to make better informed purchasing and waste management decisions, and/or knowledge of where donated food can be sent.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
Reducing the amount of food being sent to regional landfills: Cook County will achieve reducing the amount of food being sent to regional landfills by providing suburban Cook County residents with a food scrap drop-off program. This program includes giving residents, public schools, public libraries, colleges, and other non-profits a permanent location where they can dispose of their food scraps. This location will be at the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM Center) at the South Suburban College (SSC) in South Holland, IL. SSC is a public community college that serves over 4,000 students. SSC is conveniently located in the middle of most south suburban municipalities. The CHaRM Center is opened every Tuesday and Thursday of the week and every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. Cook County will also provide the first 1,400 residents, and 100 public schools/public libraries/colleges/non-profits, that sign-up for this program a free containers or carts that they can use to bring their food scraps to the CHaRM Center. Cook County will partner with non-profit Seven Generations Ahead (SGA) in the execution of the Food Scrap Drop-Off Program. SGA's has extensive experience implementing similar food scrap programs in the western suburbs of Cook County. The expertise of SGA will ensure that this program for the southern suburbs is run smoothly and effectively. In addition, Cook County will fund SSC to establish a paid zero-waste student internship program to support SGA and the CHaRM Center in the implementation of this program. These student interns will receive the necessary education and training to be ambassadors of this program to local communities as the County works to engage residents in this program.Increasing the amount of edible food that can be transferred to people in need: Cook County will increase the amount of edible food that can be transferred to people in need by adding a permanent weather-controlled storage container at the CHaRM Center so residents and businesses can bring perishable and non-perishable food. These food items will then be transferred to local homeless shelters, food pantries, and other food programs that serve families who are food insecure. This program is designed to help residents and businesses donate food to the 760,000 people in Chicagoland who are food insecure instead of discarding food they no longer need.Creating nutrient-dense compost that can be returned to local communities, and renewable natural gas (RNG) that can go into the local energy grid: Cook County will create nutrient-dense compost and renewable natural gas (RNG) by transferring all the food that is collected from the Food Drop-Off Program at the CHaRM Center to the Green Era Campus (GEC). GEC has the only Illinois EPA permitted food scrap anaerobic digester in Cook County. This anaerobic digester can make compost and RNG from food scraps. GEC provides the Urban Growers Collective (UGC) with all their nutrient-rich compost. UGC is a Black and women led nonprofit that manages all of GEC's programming, community engagement, and garden center. In addition, UGC has an urban farm and uses the compost from the GEC to provide healthy, affordable, fresh produce back to Cook County residents. The RNG made at the GEC is a carbon-negative energy source because it is created from organic waste that is continuously produced and is naturally occurring as part of the decomposition process. GEC's RNG is directly injected into the local natural gas pipeline, blending with the overall gas supply to help decarbonize the grid. RNG functions identically to conventional natural gas, making it fully compatible with existing infrastructure, pipelines, and appliances without requiring any modifications.Helping to expand a new constituency in Cook County dedicated to implementing better waste management practices, like recycling and composting: Cook County will help expand a new constituency in Cook County dedicated to implementing better waste management practices, like recycling and composting by conducting a comprehensive food waste prevention and diversion marketing campaign for the entire County. Cook County will partner with the SSC: Office of Public Relations in the implementation of this marketing and advertisement campaign. This includes promoting the South Suburban Cook County Food Scrap Drop-Off Program to south suburban Cook County residents, public schools, public libraries, and area non-profits, with advertisements on local transit stations (trains and buses), home flyers and postcard mailers, billboards, newspapers, radio PSAs, and social media targeted advertisements. This campaign will also provide direct marketing and advertisements in the City of Chicago and to other Cook County residents in the northern and western suburbs, to support/promote food waste prevention and diversion strategies. This includes educational information about general source reduction techniques, locations and programs around the County to recycle, donate food, and locations and programs around the County that accept food scraps for composting and/or anaerobic digestion. These marketing and advertisements will also be strategically located on billboards, TV and Radio PSAs, newspapers, and targeted social media advertisements.
Project Methods
1.A South Suburban Food Scrap Drop-Off Program for 51 south suburban Cook County municipalities.Milestone 1: Outputs: Open a permanent food scrap drop-off program at the CHaRM Center.Evaluations: Cook County Quarterly Waste Hauler Report Submission; Spreadsheet tracking cart distribution & program sign-ups; Spreadsheet tracking visits, compost distributions and RNG being sold; Quarterly input data into EPA Warm Model Tool; and, Add all data collected into County Solid Waste Annual Report.Milestone 2: Outputs:Open a permanent weather-controlled storage unit at the CHaRM Center for food donations.Evaluations:Spreadsheet tracking distribution of food to homeless shelters/food programs/etc.; add all data collected into County Solid Waste Annual Report.Milestone 3:Outputs:Launch an internal SSC zero waste team to advance food waste prevention and diversion efforts within the school, at the CHaRM Center, and in the surrounding south suburban community.Evaluations:waste audits that measure quantities and types of food being disposed and rescued;internal policies created;hours of student engagement at Charm Center and outreach programs;Add all data collected into County Solid Waste Annual Report.2.A Comprehensive Countywide Food Waste Prevention and Diversion Marketing Campaign.Milestone 1: Outputs:Promote the Food Scrap Drop-Off Program.Evaluations: database of news articles, videos, mailings sent, flyers posted, and number of online/radio/tv viewers.Milestone 2: Outputs:Promote all locations in the County where residents can drop-off their food scraps.Evaluations:database of news articles, videos, mailings sent, flyers posted, and number of online/radio/tv viewers.Milestone 3: Outputs:Promote all entities in the County that provide composting services.Evaluations:database of news articles, videos, mailings sent, flyers posted, and number of online/radio/tv viewers.Milestone 4: Outputs:Promote all locations in the County were residents and ICI entities can donate food.Evaluations:database of news articles, videos, mailings sent, flyers posted, and number of online/radio/tv viewers.Milestone 5: Outputs:Promote food waste prevention & diversion educational awareness to all County residents.Evaluations:database of news articles, videos, mailings sent, flyers posted, and number of online/radio/tv viewers.