Waukegan's Earth Week activities start Saturday; ‘This gives people a chance to do their spring cleaning'

Chicago Tribune

18-04-2025

Collaboration between the city of Waukegan and the Waukegan Park District for a river and ravine cleanup on April 5 officially made this Earth Month locally, but the city's annual Earth Week activities begin on April 19.
Started four years ago when community members and city officials joined forces to arrange a week of events, Earth Week has grown to include hundreds of volunteers picking up trash around the city from the lakefront to each of the nine wards.
'Trash accumulates over the winter,' Mayor Ann Taylor said. 'Once the snow melts, it becomes more obvious. This gives people a chance to do their spring cleaning. It's had a snowball effect. Lots of people are now getting involved to make the city better.'
The city's fourth-annual Earth Week opens Saturday with a recycling event at the Waukegan Public Library and continues through April 26, when hundreds of people will be doing a variety of projects throughout Waukegan to help the environment.
Along with the recycling event on Saturday and next weekend's events around the city at the Waukegan Municipal Beach, the Waukegan Harbor & Marina and other locations, each ward has a designated day where they can bring unwanted items to a Dumpster that will be set out in their neighborhood.
Ald. Lynn Florian, 8th Ward, helped organize the first Earth Week when local accountant Marty Wozniak suggested more activities around the city on the same day he led the spring rendition of his quadrennial cleanup of the Amstutz Expressway.
'Our ultimate goal is that we don't have to do this because everyone will dispose of their trash and help the environment,' Florian said. 'For the foreseeable future, this is a very good thing, and we're going to keep at it. It's great to see how many people get involved.'
Opening the week, the library's Off the Grid team is conducting a free recycling event for paper and electronic waste between 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot behind the building near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Clayton Street.
Christian Neighbors Church in Waukegan is organizing a volunteer effort bringing people from 14 churches and three other not-for-profit organizations together to fan out through the city collecting discarded items.
'It's a chance for people from different walks of life and different churches and other organizations to get to know each other and make the community better working together,' the Rev. Luke McFadden, the church's pastor, said. 'It's really overwhelming to see this happen.'
McFadden said more than 250 people volunteered for the effort last year, and he expects more on April 26. They will gather at 8:30 a.m. in the church parking lot at 222 North County St., start going into the neighborhoods at 9 a.m. and finish with a lunch at 11:30 a.m.
Lisa May, the city's lakefront coordinator, said she is expecting more than 100 volunteers from the American Place Casino and USA Bluebook for a beach cleanup from 10 a.m. to noon on April 26.
May said a lot of trash accumulates at the beach over the winter.
'The wind blows a lot of trash into the dunes and tall grasses,' she said. 'It takes a lot of work to get the beach ready for summer, and my staff of Beach Rangers do not start until Memorial Day weekend.'
Julie Ivic, American Place's director of communications and advertising, said this is the casino's second year of sending people to the beach and dunes. It is one of several ways the company helps in the community.
Just south of the beach, between 50 and 150 volunteers — including a contingent from the Waukegan Police Department — will gather at the harbor for a cleanup. Robert Kutzler, the harbor's director of marketing and special events, said the effort has taken place for more than 25 years.
'We give them gloves, a picker and a garbage bag,' Kutzler said. 'When the bag gets full, they lay it down and the police pick it up. It helps keep the place clean, and it is good for the environment.
Shelby McDonald, the Park District's director of marketing and community relations, said the organization also has Earth Month events scheduled throughout April. There are a variety of activities, including one where children in the Before and After School Experience get a tree to take home and plant.
'They are learning and doing something to reduce the carbon footprint,' McDonald said.
Throughout the week, the Waukegan Public Works Department will take Dumpsters to locations throughout the city for people to discard trash. City workers will retrieve them to dispose of the items. Dumpsters will be in their location from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Dumpsters will be at 8th and Adams streets in the First Ward, and at the intersection of Dugdale Road and Benny Avenue in the Second Ward on Monday. On Tuesday, they will be at 100 North Lewis Avenue in the Third Ward, and in the Fourth Ward between Butrick and Washington streets.
On Wednesday, there will be a Dumpster near the intersection of Greenwood Avenue and Delaware Street in the Fifth Ward, as well as Hickory and Keith streets in the Sixth Ward.
Dumpsters move to 1815 North Sheridan Road in the Seventh Ward, and 2255 West Yorkhouse Road in the Eighth Ward on Thursday. A Dumpster will be in the Ninth Ward at 2650 Belvidere Road on Friday.
People cannot bring yard waste, liquids, tree trunks, concrete, brick, stone, rocks, hazardous waste, flammable materials, carpets, small engines, paint, stain or railroad ties to the Dumpsters, according to information on the city's website.