This is a rendering of a Lakeshore Recycling Systems waste and material transfer station being proposed for a Moline industrial park south of the Quad Cities International Airport. CREDIT CITY OF MOLINE
Moline leaders are working through the lengthy process required to welcome a waste and material transfer station to a still-empty industrial park created in 2011 as part of a tax increment financing (TIF) district south of the Quad Cities International Airport. Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati and other supporters are touting the benefits this week of the […]
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Moline leaders are working through the lengthy process required to welcome a waste and material transfer station to a still-empty industrial park created in 2011 as part of a tax increment financing (TIF) district south of the Quad Cities International Airport. Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati and other supporters are touting the benefits this week of the $15 million, 5,000-square-foot, self-contained staging and recycling center being proposed by Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS). The proposed site is west of Group O on 10 acres located at 47th Street and 78th Avenue. Among the benefits, city leaders say, are increasing competition in the local waste management marketplace, creating construction and permanent jobs, and helping Moline reduce the ongoing debt it has incurred on a TIF district that has not delivered any development dollars in more than a decade of existence.The land for the project is owned by the Metropolitan Airport Authority of Rock Island County. Its board of commissioners, which oversees the Quad Cities International Airport (QCIA), unanimously approved a land lease agreement with LRS for an indoor, non-hazardous solid waste transfer facility at its Jan. 17 board meeting.“The ground lease providing them rights to develop the property was required to move forward with the City of Moline,” said Ashleigh Davis, public relations and marketing manager for the QCIA.“Due to the proximity to the airport, the potential site will not only be state-of-the-art in terms of technology and reduce environmental impact, it will meet the highest standards of IEPA (Illinois Environmental Protection Agency) as well as FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) requirements and guidance,” she added. “The proposed site is appropriately zoned for this operation and based on our work with LRS thus far, it is the airport’s position that welcoming LRS to the Quad Cities region will have a positive impact, including creating new jobs, adding 200,000-plus annual dollars to the tax base and introducing additional competition into the market which will help keep costs low for residents and businesses,” Ms. Davis said. The project is not without its critics, however. Some bistate leaders have reportedly expressed concerns about the planned facility. And Ms. Rayapati told the QCBJ that she learned this week that someone was going door to door in a Moline neighborhood asking residents to sign a petition against the proposed waste transfer center center. “I want the residents of Moline to know that the council has been looking out for their best interests financially here and these tactics are very typical when these types of deals are going through,” Ms. Rayapati said.
Transfer station, not a landfill
The mayor stressed that the privately owned and operated waste transfer station is not a landfill but a sorting and recycling facility. “The building is 100% enclosed, which means that people will potentially barely know that it is there,” Ms. Rayapati saidTrucks will drive up to the building, and the doors will be opened, then closed behind them, she said. Their loads will be dropped inside the enclosed facility for sorting before the trucks are driven out empty. Waste material remaining will not be kept at the facility but transported to the landfill.She also addressed concerns from local community leaders reportedly worried that the LRS facility will result in increased tipping fee cost for communities across the Quad Cities. Those fees, also called gate fees, are the dollars paid by anyone who takes waste to a landfill for disposal. Scott County officials also have publicly expressed concerns about loss of revenue from the Waste Commission of Scott County’s recycling center if recycled materials are brought to a new LRS dropoff site. Neither that organization nor other local government leaders the QCBJ contacted have responded to requests for comment on the project.For Moline’s mayor, the competition that the project will create is both a significant advantage to the LRS project and the reason for much of the opposition to it.“There is a long history of consolidation of waste companies within Illinois. So much so that in the area right now, the primary care of those services goes to two of three top publicly-traded waste companies in the country, and I believe the opposition is to other companies coming into the market potentially impacting market share,” Ms. Rayapati said in reference to Midwest Waste Inc. and Republic Services.Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati“Anytime you have potential monopolies it’s not good for residents; it's not good for residents across the river and it’s not good for residents on my side of the river so increasing competition is good but I’m not sure everyone liked the idea,” she added. The project has a number of other advantages for Moline and the Rock Island County Waste Management Agency (RICWMA) in particular, supporters say.
Rock Island County impacted
Ms. Rayapati said the LRS station will not only increase revenue for the City of Moline, but “the city has promised to split any revenue gained from the new center with RICWMA 50/50. Those dollars will come from increased tipping fees.”Moline City Administrator Bob Vitas said the new center also will help reduce the city’s TIF debt on an airport area industrial park that has not generated any tax increment since its creation. Both he and the mayor say it will spark additional new development in the park.“What it means to Moline is that finally we will have a project in a TIF that has not seen a project and this will help us manage our finances because when TIFs don’t have projects they’re taking money from our general fund and that’s what’s happening in TIF 7,” Ms. Rayapati added.The new building also is a positive for the Illinois Quad Cities because it will help restore two of four recycling drop offs that were closed in 2021 due to funding issues. Residents also will continue to have a third site at Midland Davis once the new center is open for business. “Now we will have more recycling drop offs available and this will not only help our residents in Moline but people in outer cities will potentially have access to those sites as well,” the mayor said. Demand was especially high for an electronic recycling center on the Illinois side so that Rock Island County residents would no longer have to take e-waste across the river to Scott County. Many of those residents have complained that they couldn't get to Scott County “easily or at all,” Ms. Raypati said. “It’s a financial and a services’ win for our residents.”It also will mean jobs, Moline leaders say. The estimated $15 million center will feature union-built construction, Mr. Vitas said. In addition to those construction jobs, full-time jobs created by the transfer station are likely to include office staff, mechanics, equipment operators and truck drivers.Additional advantages the city said could include reducing wear and tear on Moline garbage and recycling collection vehicles, helping control garbage rates, and extending the useful life of area landfills.
What’s next?
There’s still a long way to go before the project can be approved, the city warns. In addition to site approval from Moline and RICWMA, the facility must obtain a permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. RICWMA also will need to determine if the proposed project is consistent with the county’s solid waste plan. RICWMA currently is reviewing the plan the city presented to commissioners in late December.Mr. Vitas said he expects it will take about six months to get through the necessary regulatory phases and public hearings, with a potential Moline City Council vote finalizing the project expected sometime in August 2023.If approved, engineering and planning for the new transfer station would likely get underway in late 2023, with most construction occurring in 2024, and a goal of going operational sometime in early 2025.
LRS at a glance:
Lakeshore Recycling Systems is a Rosemont, Illinois-based company that runs closed-loop waste and recycling centers in nine Midwest states including in the Quad Cities.
It boasts revenues of more than $350 million a year, has an employee base of nearly 1,500 individuals and an asset base of 34 facilities, according to the publication Waste Today.
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.
