Peoria County, IL Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 4 of the Illinois Solid Waste Planning and Recycling Act (415 ILCS 15/4) required every county with 100,000 or more residents, Peoria County included, to submit an officially adopted municipal waste management plan to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency by March 1, 1991. The Illinois EPA had 90 days to review the plan and could return it with recommendations, in which case the county board had to adopt a revised plan by September 1, 1991. Section 5 requires the county to form an advisory committee of municipal, citizen, industry and private-hauler representatives before adoption, hold at least one public hearing during a 90-day comment period, and update the plan every five years.

Section 6 spells out what the recycling component of that plan must contain: a countywide implementation schedule, a designated recycling coordinator, and numeric diversion targets of 15 percent of municipal waste by the third year of the program and 25 percent by the fifth year. The plan may require residents to separate recyclable materials at the time of trash pickup, must provide for separate collection and composting of leaves, and must include public education and compliance provisions with both incentives and penalties. Section 7 gives the county one year after plan adoption to begin implementation and lets it contract that work out to haulers or municipalities.

Locally, Peoria County has not exercised the mandatory-separation option: Chapter 7.1, Section 7.1-3 of the county code keeps residential recycling voluntary while requiring any hauler who collects recyclables, commercial or residential, to hold a county hauler license under Section 7.1-4. Commercial establishments, by contrast, must separate their two highest-volume recyclables under Section 7.1-2.