Illinois General Assembly - Illinois Compiled Statutes

Updating the database of the Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) is an ongoing process. Recent laws may not yet be included in the ILCS database, but they are found on this site as Public Acts soon after they become law. For information concerning the relationship between statutes and Public Acts, refer to the Guide.

Because the statute database is maintained primarily for legislative drafting purposes, statutory changes are sometimes included in the statute database before they take effect. If the source note at the end of a Section of the statutes includes a Public Act that has not yet taken effect, the version of the law that is currently in effect may have already been removed from the database and you should refer to that Public Act to see the changes made to the current law.

415 ILCS 20/2

(415 ILCS 20/2) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 7052)

Sec. 2.

Public Policy.

(a) The General Assembly finds:

(1) that current solid waste disposal practices are not adequate to
address the needs of many metropolitan areas in Illinois;

(2) that the generation of solid waste is increasing while landfill
capacity is decreasing;

(3) that siting of new landfills, transfer stations, incinerators,
recycling facilities, or other solid waste management facilities and the
expansion of existing facilities is very difficult due to the public
concern and competition with other land uses for suitable sites;

(4) that more effective and efficient management of solid waste is
needed in a manner that promotes economic development, protects the
environment and public health and safety, and allows the most practical and
beneficial use of the material and energy values of solid waste;

(5) that state government policy and programs should be developed to
assist local governments and private industry in seeking solutions to solid
waste management problems;

(6) that the purchase of products or supplies made from recycled
materials by public agencies in the State will divert significant
quantities of waste from landfills, reduce disposal costs and stimulate
recycling markets, thereby encouraging the further use of recycled
materials and educating the public about the utility and availability of
such materials;

(7) that there are wastes for which combustion would not provide
practical energy recovery or practical volume reduction, which cannot be
reasonably recycled or reused and which have reduced environmental threat
because they are non-putrescible, homogeneous and do not contain free
liquids.  Such wastes bear a real and substantial difference under the
purposes of the Illinois Solid Waste Management Act from solid wastes for
which combustion would provide practical energy recovery or practical
volume reduction, which can be reasonably recycled or reused, or which are
putrescible, non-homogeneous or contain free liquids;

(8) since it is the policy of the State as set forth in the
Environmental Protection Act to assure that contaminants discharged into
the atmosphere or waters of the State are given the degree of treatment or
control necessary to prevent pollution, that wastes generated as a result
of removing contaminants from the air, water or land bear a real and
substantial difference from other wastes in that the generation of wastes
containing pollution treatment residuals can improve the environment in
Illinois and should be encouraged;

(9) since it is the policy of the State as set forth in the
Environmental Protection Act to promote conservation of natural resources
and minimize environmental damage by encouraging and effecting recycling
and reuse of waste materials, that wastes from recycling, reclamation or
reuse processes designed to remove contaminants so as to render such wastes
reusable or wastes received at a landfill and recycled through an Agency
permitted process bear a real and substantial difference from wastes not
resulting from or subject to such recycling, reclamation, or reuse and that
encouraging such recycling, reclamation or reuse furthers the purposes of
the Illinois Solid Waste Management Act;

(10) that there are over 300 landfills in Illinois which are permitted to
accept only demolition or construction debris or landscape waste, the vast
majority of which accept less than 10,000 cubic yards per year.  By
themselves these wastes pose only a minimal hazard to the environment when
landfilled in compliance with regulatory requirements in an
Agency-permitted site without commingling with other wastes and, as such,
landfills receiving only such wastes bear a real and substantial difference
from landfills receiving wastes which are
commingled.  Disposal of these wastes in landfills permitted for municipal
wastes uses up increasingly scarce capacity for garbage, general household
and commercial waste.  It is the policy of the State to encourage disposal
of these wastes in separate landfills.

(b) It is the purpose of this Act to reduce reliance on land disposal of
solid waste, to encourage and promote alternative means of managing solid
waste, and to assist local governments with solid waste planning and
management.  In furtherance of those aims, while recognizing that landfills
will continue to be necessary, this Act establishes the
following waste management hierarchy, in descending order of preference,
as State policy:

(1) volume reduction at the source;

(2) recycling and reuse;

(3) combustion with energy recovery;

(4) combustion for volume reduction;

(5) disposal in landfill facilities.

(Source: P.A. 85-1440.)