In February, 2023 plans for a new trash site run by Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS), was approved by West Chicago city officials; however, since then their has been immense backlash from the community causing the Illinois State Board to stop the follow through of the plan.
West Chicago, located in DuPage county, is already home to a trash site run by Groot Waste Managment. Last year there were plans made to have West Chicago host another trash site only a half of a mile away from the first one. Residents have been a fury because if the plan prevailed, West Chicago would be home to two trash sites and no other city in DuPage county would be home to any trash sites.
“The decision by the Illinois Pollution Control Board delays but doesn’t kill the project, which was opposed by some Latino residents who called the plan racist . Opponents said that their community would be a landing place for garbage hauled from white communities, including Naperville and Wheaton,” written in an article by Brett Chase via the Chicago Sun Times.
Adding another trash holding facility has posed many concerns for West Chicago citizens.
“We already have two waste management facilities in our town within less than a mile from each other and in the industrial area. There are people who live in homes and properties in that area. There are the Timberlake apartments where the residents are Latino, children, and seniors who live there. There is also a public elementary school in the area.The flow and traffic of diesel fuel trucks will increase significantly, causing traffic pollution as well as environmental pollution that highly may cause respiratory diseases in children and immune compromised individuals,” citizen Julieta Alcantar-Garcia said.
