Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful

Neighborhood Litter On The Rise

: BE RESP0NSIBLE — DON’T LITTER!

“Litter may seem minor, but it lowers property values, impacts our quality of life, destroys natural beauty, harms or kills wildlife, diminishes water quality and results in increased cleanup costs,” explained Executive Director, Lori Gummow. “Litter is everyone’s responsibility. Littered recyclable items are a lost resource. We each need to set an example by using appropriate receptacles and not littering.”

The annual KEEP NORTHERN ILLINOIS BEAUTIFUL Litter Index Survey was conducted recently involving volunteers assessing 177 locations in 10 neighborhoods. The goal of the index was to determine littering trends and identify needy areas. The survey numbers by neighborhood were higher indicating more litter than in past years.

Recycling Hero Award

KEEP NORTHERN ILLINOIS BEAUTIFUL’s Executive Director, Lori Gummow received the Illinois Recycling Association’s “Recycling Hero Award” on Saturday, November 5, 2011. The IRA presents this award annually to an individual or organization for being an outstanding community resource for waste reduction, reuse and recycling at a premier gala event celebrating America Recycles Day.

Long time KNIB Volunteer Vicki Swanson is shown with Lori and the “Recycling Hero” Award.

KEEP NORTHERN ILLINOIS BEAUTIFUL annually educates over 1,600 children and adults; collects/recycles 264 tons of household recyclables; chips 32,000 Christmas Trees; redistributes 215,000 pounds of clothing; collects 155,000 pounds of metal and electronics; protects 3.6 billion gallons of drinking water; and cleans up 50 tons of litter/debris from County streets while utilizing 3,491 volunteers giving 11,516 hours of time.

Clothing Drives Top 5,800 Cars in 2011

The weather during the 2011 Clothing Drives went from freezing in the Spring to very warm in the summer. Between the three drives over 5,800Winnebago County residents brougt their worn out fashions to be recycled or reused. Over 470 volunteers pitched in at the seven Hilander locations, unloading cars, trucks and pickups full of clothing.

In all, Almost 271,000 pounds of clothing were collected fordistribution in Third World Countries and in the U.S.

This event has been produced by Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful since 1999, working exclusively with the local Hilander Stores and Coca-Cola. Since the beginning of this program almost 60,000 residents have donated over 2.8 Million pounds of clothing for use in disadvantaged countries and areas of the U.S. Of the clothing donated approximately 44% are reused as clothing; around 36% will be recycled for their fiber content and made into any number of items which have a textile base and the remaining 20% will be used for industrial purposes. Virtually nothing goes to waste or the landfill.

Pictured at right, Tom McCullough is one of several members of the Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful Board of Directors who pitched in for the events.

Watch for the next Clothing Drive

Saturday, May 12, 2012

at all seven Hilander Stores.

2011 Metals Drives Push Record

Diane & Jim LaForge Unload Computer Monitors

Despite threatening weather in the spring and mid-summer like sun in October, cars were lined up all day to unload scrap metal and electronic components. At times the lihe stretched around the back of Machesney Mall and for many the wait was 20 minutes or more. But most were willing to wait to keep their items from going to the landfill.

More than 1,900 people dropped off items ranging from an old lawnmower to broken tools to just plain scrap metal. But mostly it was outdated computer equipment; monitors, CPU’s, printers, keyboards, etc. Almost 2,000 computer monitors were taken for recycling. Virtually every component in a outdated monitor can be recycled or reused.

Effective January 1, 2012, electronic items will no longer be accepted at the landfills in Illinois. Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful is licensed and approved by the State of Illinois as a collector of all electronics devices since 2010.

Our volunteers invested 550 hours of their Saturdays to help keep our local environment clear of waste. Thanks to all the volunteers who worked from early morning on, and special thanks to the hundreds of drivers who waited patiently as the line progressed.

Sponsors for this annual Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful event included, Behr Metsls, Coca-Cola, Gray’s IGA, Great Harvest Bread, By The Dozen Donut shop, Woodman’s Market, Port-A-Jon of Roscoe and Ringland-Johnson Construction.

Watch for the next

Metals & Electronics Drive

Saturday, May 5, 2012

at Machesney Mall, South Parking Lot

Lori Gummow Honored

May 3, 2011

Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful Executive Director Lori Gummow was honored today for her efforts in beautifying Northern Illinois. The Council of Rockford Gardners presented Lori with their Civic Improvement Award for devoted service to improving the area.

Mary Ann Miller presented Lori with this recognition at a luncheon today.

Congratulations, Lori. We’re justly proud of you and your concern for our community.

A Green, Clean Winnebago County!

Melody Hipp, not too young to volunteer!

May 2nd, 2011

The weather for the Great American Cleanup in Winnebago County was cooperative and the sun brightened everyone’s spirits as folks gathered for the 25th annual Great American Cleanup on Saturday, April 30th. Across America hundreds of thousands were cleaning their community and the residents of Winnebago County were no exception.

Nearly 1,700 individuals, groups, churches, neighborhood associations, and others registered to do their part to clean up the winter’s debris from the streets and roads around the county. Just over 100,000 pounds of litter and debris were removed from the streets. Sixteen locations, strategically located around Winnebago County, were made available for volunteers to obtain their supplies including safety vests, litter tongs, gloves and brightly colored trash bags. Now those trash bags await the massive pick up effort needed to collect then and dispose of them. Over 6,600 hours of local volunteer effort were given.

Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful is proud to have partnered with the City of Rockford, Winnebago County and many other companies in the area to accomplish this clean up effort. Volunteers were treated to lunch at the end of their day, provided by McDonald’s; Mary’s Market; Starbucks; Papa John’s; Mrs. Fishers; Pepsi and Subway.

THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS AND SPONSORS FOR ANOTHER JOB VERY WELL DONE!!

NON-PROFIT EXCELLENCE IN RECYCLING

April 21, 2011

Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful was presented with the Non-Profit Excellence in Recycling Award by Jodi Behr of Joseph Behr & Sons, Rockford. This award recognizes the efforts of Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful in preventing hundreds of tons of scrap metal from going to the landfill. Since the first Metals & Electronics Drive in 1998, KNIB has routed almost 1.9 million pounds of scrap metal metal and electronics items to recycling. Accepting the award from Jodi Behr and other members of the Behr organization, is Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful Executive Director Lori Gummow (second from right).

2010 Woman Business Manager Announced

KEEP NORTHERN ILLINOIS BEAUTIFUL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LORI GUMMOW, WAS RECENTLY HONORED AS THE ROCKFORD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE WOMAN BUSINESS MANAGER OF THE YEAR FOR 2010!

CONGRATULATIONS, LORI, ON A JOB WELL DONE.

WE’RE PROUD OF YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS ON BEHALF OF OUR COMMUNITY!