MACOMB - The little yellow bins that dot sections of Macomb each garbage collection day provide more than just another garbage option to area residents.

The bins that collect paper, plastic, cardboard, glass and soda cans not only protect the environment by reusing products, they area also responsible for jobs for well over 50 local people. Disabled workers who might not otherwise have a chance to earn a paycheck fill many of those jobs.

Macomb City Administrator Mike Hays said that the city contracts with Waste Management to provide recycling services to local residents. The McDonough County Board handed out eight-gallon yellow collection bins last year so that residents could place all of their recyclable materials in one place.

Crews from Waste Management pick up the recyclables from the curb and place them, unsorted, into a separate collection truck. The items are then dropped off several times a day at Bridgeway, a company that works with the developmentally disabled on Deer Road in Macomb.

The unsorted mass of recyclables are then put into a large storage room at Bridgeway, where they are loaded onto a conveyor belt and are sorted by workers. Once the sorting bins are full the items such as paper or plastic bottles and soda cans are made into 1,500-pound bales. Tom Colclasure, president of Bridgeway Training Services, said that Bridgeway, with the help of some grants, made a significant investment to get their program up and running. The company now employs 55 workers in its recycling program, about 44 of which are people with disabilities.

Colclasure said without the recycling program, many of the disabled people the company works to help might not have jobs. "Some of the people with disabilities work at a pace that wouldn't fit into a work situation in the community," he said. "In this program we teach them things like staying on task and attendance and help them develop skills that may help them move on to a job in the community some day."

Colclasure said some of those workers also go on to other jobs with Bridgeway. The Bridgeway facility recently purchased a new baler that compacts everything but glass into wire-wrapped bales.

The Bridgeway recycling facility also accepts materials from a number of other small communities and garbage companies, but Bridgeway workshop Manager Suzanne Fuhr said the bulk of the items brought is in from Macomb.

Currently Bridgeway accepts aluminum, tin or metal cans, #1 plastic like soda and water bottles and #2 plastic like milk or water jugs or detergent bottles.

Fuhr said that containers that have a larger mouth than a base, such as yogurt or cottage cheese containers, are not recyclable. The facility also accepts paper, cardboard, magazines and clear, green or brown glass. Items like cereal, soap or shoeboxes, Styrofoam or egg cartons are not accepted.

"This last year we increased our recycled materials by 85 percent," Colclasure said. "We were just keeping up with what was coming in." Once the items are sorted and baled at Bridgeway they are sold to a variety of markets. Quincy Recycling, Inc. buys most of the paper items by the ton and by the truckload through a price agreement. Fuhr said the price items like cardboard fluctuates based on its market. She said the demand for cardboard is the highest at the end of June, and is usually based on the amount of cardboard needed in China to manufacture Christmas wrapping paper and packaging.

Recycled aluminum cans are purchased by Anheuser-Busch and office paper is sold to companies in either Canada or southern Georgia, depending of who needs it the most. Glass is crushed and sold to a St. Louis company.

Companies come and pick up the bales from Bridgeway once they have at least 40,000 pounds of one recyclable item. Fuhr said Bridgeway recycles about 20,000 pounds per day, or 250,000 to 300,000 pounds per month.

The city of Macomb will pay Waste Management $86,500 this year to pick up the recyclables at the curb. Waste Management then sells the items they pick up to Bridgeway by the ton.

Regional Solid Waste Coordinator Chad Braatz said that a formal recycling program has been in place in Macomb for about 11 years. One year ago, Braatz said, he convinced the McDonough County Board to provide bins for all local communities for their recycling programs. "It took some of the (financial) crunch out of it for the communities," he said. "The containers are made out of at least 50 percent recycled materials like milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles.

Braatz said that Monmouth is the only area community that sorts the recyclables at the curbside and puts them into a compartmentalized truck. He said other companies that handle recyclables buy old garbage trucks and dump the recycling bins in there without sorting them. At least in Macomb there is a curbside educational process. If the person picking up the bins recognizes something that is not recyclable in the bins they put the item back in the bin and leave it on the curb. That informs the homeowner that the items cannot be accepted and should be placed in the regular garbage.

Prior to the bin system Macomb residents could put their recyclables in a bag and leave it at the curbside.

"There were too many contaminants," Braatz said. "This is a very effective system and if everyone does their jobs we don't get too many complaints.

" Recycling in Illinois is not mandatory, but Braatz said the state sets certain goals for programs across the state.

In addition to the jobs generated at Bridgeway, Braatz said that recycling creates countless jobs for people and companies connected to picking up the materials was well as for those that accepted the bales after processing.

"One aluminum can recycled saves enough natural energy to produce electricity for a television or computer monitor for three hours," he said. "And it's a benefit to the environment."