oline is in the early stages of approving a new private sector transfer station located near the Quad Cities International Airport that is expected to help the city control future garbage rates, extend the useful life of area landfills, bring two recycling drop-off centers back to Rock Island County and spur further development in TIF 7.
Lakeshore Recycling Systems – a Rosemont, Ill.-based company that runs closed-loop waste and recycling centers in nine Midwest states – has proposed building a 15,000-square-foot waste and material transfer facility on 47th Street, near the intersection of 47th Street and 78th Avenue. The project site is on land owned by the airport and within Moline’s “air industrial park” TIF 7 district. This would be the first development in TIF 7 since its creation.
A transfer station is an enclosed building where municipal waste, recyclables and landscape waste are taken by waste collection trucks to be consolidated onto larger and more efficient semi-trailers for transportation to a final destination.
In addition to requiring siting approval from Moline and the Rock Island County Waste Management Agency (RICWMA), the facility must also obtain a permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. RICWMA will determine if the project as proposed is consistent with the county’s solid waste plan.
LRS and the city presented a project plan to RICWMA in late December and is awaiting approval from that agency based on the plan’s adherence to the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan. Moline City Administrator Bob Vitas said he anticipates it will take around six months to get through the necessary regulatory phases and public hearings, with a potential City Council vote finalizing the project expected sometime in August 2023.
Vitas said the facility would bring several benefits to both Moline and other Rock Island County residents. Those include:
- Increasing competition in the marketplace and increasing funding for RICWMA.
- Reducing wear and tear on Moline garbage and recycling collection vehicles.
- Restoring two of the four drop-off recycling sites that were lost when RICWMA closed four of them in 2021 due to funding issues.
- Driving further economic development in airport industrial park. creating jobs, increase tipping fees for both RICWMA and the city as well as helping reduce TIF debt.
- Creation of an electronic recycling center on the Illinois side of the river so residents and others do not have to bring e-waste to Scott County, Iowa.
If approved, engineering and planning for the new transfer station would likely get underway in late 2023, with most construction occurring in 2024, with the goal of going operational sometime in early 2025.
You can read Lakeshore Recycling System's presentation regarding the project to RICWMA here.