Recycling program 'smooth' in debut but more business customers needed, owner says

Du Quoin's first recycling pickup went smoothly on April 1, said the owner of Revolution Recycling, the Carbondale-based company that is offering the service.

"It went fine, smooth, according to plan," said Mike Huskey, whose trucks picked up from six businesses and about 40 residential customers in Du Quoin and Dowell.

However, Huskey said the number of businesses that have signed up so far is not enough for him to offer the service to Du Quoin in perpetuity.

"We needed 66 carts from businesses, that are emptied once a week," Huskey said. "Unfortunately we ended up with six businesses and about a dozen carts between them."

Revolution Recycling's business model relies on business, commercial and industrial customers - many of them with multiple carts that require pickups once a week - to pay for the residential customers, who usually need pickups less frequently.

Huskey said he needs to hustle up more recycling from Du Quoin businesses for this program to be sustainable. He said the city has more than enough commercial and industrial companies to make it work, in fact, "even 10% would be enough," if they signed up, he added.

Huskey said he isn't thinking about pulling the plug on Du Quoin recycling.

"We've got a lot of time and money invested at this point," in expanding recycling to Du Quoin, he said. "I'll have to get out there - I don't expect people to just hand me business on a silver platter."

Huskey said he's willing to give it six months or even a year, "before I talk about giving it up."

Revolution Recycling started in 2008 and since then has been collecting recyclables in Jackson County, mostly Carbondale and Murphysboro, and some customers in Union County.

Huskey said almost all of their clients in Jackson County are commercial, not residential.

Commercial and industrial recycling is what the business is built on, Huskey said, but in talks with Du Quoin officials he recognized that it was important to offer residential recycling here, too.

Du Quoin's previous recycling program was cut from the 2021 budget after it wound up costing the city more money and staff time than it wanted to spend, as people were leaving non-recyclable or prohibited items both in and around the three recycling bins placed around the city.

Revolution Recycling provides 95-gallon carts on wheels for cardboard and mixed paper, and 65-gallon carts for glass, metal and plastics 1 & 2. Each cart from Revolution Recycling requires a $50 deposit, and pickup costs are $5 per service for one or two carts; $4 per service for customers who have three to five carts; and $3 per service for customers with six or more carts.

For questions or to sign up for service, call (877) 316-1776; visit RecycleWhereYouWork.com or email RecycleWhereYouWork@gmail.com.