SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (IRN) - There’s a new way to green things up in Illinois while creating new jobs. A statewide recycling database and a job training program that will serve to create new jobs in Illinois’ recycling and sustainability industries are being launched Monday at the Annual Illinois Recycling and Waste Management Conference and Trade Show. This year’s theme: “Greening Illinois Together.”

“Illinois is on the forefront of not only reducing waste but in creating the infrastructure for building a new sustainable environmental industry,” said Mike Mitchell, executive director, Illinois Recycling Association. “This is potentially the next dot-com of the 21st century.”

Mitchell says the database is user-friendly and can be updated at any time by towns and counties that add additional collection sites. The database contains the location of the collection site and what is accepted. Mitchell says the Professional Certification

Program in Sustainable Resource Management follows a national trend in redefining how industry professionals view waste management.

Mitchell says the goal is to limit landfill space while reusing a valuable commodity: recyclables.

“The old waste management model is 75 percent disposal and 25 percent recycling/composting,” Mitchell said. “Through our certification program, we are re-training professionals to see what we used to call waste as valuable resources that can be reused. This new resource management model flips these numbers, calling for at least 75 percent recycling/composting and only 25 percent disposal.

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