Collection of recyclable materials in Quincy on pace to grow by 16 percent, with revenues expected to top $100,000

QUINCY — The Quincy City Council learned that the volume of recyclable materials collected this year is on pace to increase by 16 percent over last year.

Director of Administrative Services Jeff Mays made a presentation to aldermen during Tuesday night’s meeting showing the pounds of recyclable products collected, the recycling material received at each of the city’s three collection sites and the amount of revenue generated.

Mays reminded aldermen that expenses were increasing, revenues had plateaued and started decreasing when the possibility of discontinuing curbside service was first discussed in 2022.

“We talked about possibly increasing the rates, but that would cause a falloff in customers,” Mays said. “There was a massive capital investment that we were confronting of (buying) three (recycling) trucks that we would have to pay for over the next three years at the cost of about a million dollars.”

Quincy Mayor Mike Troup cast the deciding vote to break a 7-7 tie on Sept. 12, 2022, to discontinue the city’s curbside recycling program. Recycling drop-off sites at the Harrison Hy-Vee, 1400 Harrison, Refreshment Services Pepsi, 1121 Locust, and the former County Market location at 48^th and Broadway opened for public use in March 2023. 

The city collected 2,881,180 pounds of plastic, paper, cardboard and glass from May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2024 — a 56 percent increase from the 1,730,500 pounds collected from May 1, 2022 to April 30, 2023.

Mays told aldermen on Monday that city has already collected 2,234,271 pounds from May 1 to Dec. 31, 2024. The city is on pace to collect 3,351,406 pounds by April 30, 2025. That figure would nearly double the pounds of recyclable material collected two years ago.

“The reason I wanted to put this together was because there has been interest by (Adams) County Board members. I believe they will assist us,” Mays said. “It’s going to be a simple ask. Will (the county) pick up a proportionate share of the number of hauls? (The county) certainly has seen a decrease in the pounds of recycling coming from the county sites because of what we’ve got. 

“So (the county) will be there. I’m sure they will be there.”

The city is on pace to collect more plastic (and aluminum), cardboard and glass this year than last year, but it is on pace to fall just short on the amount of paper collected this year compared to last year.

The most popular collection site is the 54^th and Broadway site in the Home Depot parking lot, which replaced the 48^th and Broadway site. The city collects an average of 118,081 pounds per month at that site and makes 70 hauls a month at 54^th and Broadway, compared to 92,472 pounds per month and 58 hauls per month at 12^th and Harrison and 68,732 pounds per month and 43 hauls per month at 12th and Locust.

Revenue from recycling has gone from a $35,461 loss in Fiscal Year 2020 to $59,201 profit in Fiscal Year 2024 — and an estimated $104,187 in Fiscal Year 2025.

Aldermen also unanimously voted to approve amending the 2024-25 Fiscal Year budget. They amended the General Fund budget by decreasing personal property replacement tax revenues by $2.384 million and decreasing General Fund expenditures by the same amount.

The Finance Committee voted Jan. 13 to send the amended 2024-25 Fiscal Year budget to the full City Council. Comptroller Sheri Ray told aldermen Tuesday night that the supplemental budget reduction ordinance that was presented “isn’t necessary.”

“We’re doing it as a way to formulate a starting point as we go into our Fiscal 2026 budget,” she said. “We always want to make sure that your current budget is accurate. If we wouldn’t do this amendment, we would be comparing to a Fiscal 2025 budget that has a really high PPRT revenue amount that we know we were never going to hit. We would obviously have a revenue shortfall.

“This supplemental is really just holding up the whole budget process for Fiscal 2026 because you want to start off with a revision that makes sense.”

In other action, aldermen:

• Were reminded about Great River Eagle Days coming up this weekend at the Oakley-Lindsay Center. “There are a ton of eagles out, as cold as it is,” Troup said. “They love it, and they’re really busy on the south side of the Lock and Dam. Those are magnificent creatures to watch. You may not want to get out of the car if it stays this cold, but I think it’s so worthwhile going down there to enjoy them.”
• Learned the Police Benevolent and Protective Association Labor Unit 12, which represents officers with the Quincy Police Department, officially notified the city of its interest to start having negotiating sessions with city officials. “We’re pulling an internal meeting together (Wednesday) to make sure we have the list of we’ll want to do, set up a negotiating team and start getting those scheduled.”
• Learned a couple of water mains had broken in recent days because of the cold. Director of Public Works Jeffrey Conte explained the bitter cold freezes the ground, which pushes down on the brittle water mains made of old cast iron or a cement fiber pipe. “We just want to encourage people to be patient with us,” Conte said. “It’s very difficult to make these repairs when it’s at zero degrees or below. It’s very difficult on the guys who are working on it. Things don’t like to work when the temperatures are freezing.”
• Allowed a raffle to be conducted by Illinois Probation and Court Services Association requesting permission to conduct a raffle from now through May 9.
• Approved a special event application for the “Bridge the Gap to Health Race,” which begins and ends at Clat Adams Park on May 10. The closures of several streets were permitted. The city will make requests to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Missouri Department of Transportation for temporary closures of state and national routes.
• Approved Troup’s appointment of Jason Parrott to the Great River Economic Development Foundation Board of Directors and to the Quincy Bay Area Restoration and Enhancement Association Board.
• Approved spending $10,521.20 with Traffic Safety Warehouse of Deerfield to buy traffic control equipment.
• Approved a grant agreement with the Federal Aviation Commission and IDOT to update the Airport Layout Plan for revision plans made to the Runway 4/22 reconstruction project. The city will match and pass through funding in an amount not exceeding $10,377 to IDOT.
• Bought updated network switches and firewall appliances from SHI International Corp. for $37,459.45.