Rock Island County Waste Management Agency (RICWMA) is a municipal joint action agency serving 13 governments in Rock Island County, to assist and coordinate its members in solid waste management. RICWMA partners with many agencies to provide free recycling options for Rock Island County residents.
With Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22, RICWMA is proud to announce that it has officially partnered with Recycle Coach, a user-friendly dashboard to help make better recycling choices. The technology company hosting the dashboard offers a comprehensive digital solution that optimizes collection, waste, and recycling programs.
Recycle Coach connects residents with local disposal information on desktop and mobile devices. Serving over 1,700 communities, Recycle Coach strives to make the world a greener place, making it easier for people to practice waste mindfulness.
Users of Recycle Coach can become recycling experts with a comprehensive “What Goes Where?” search tool, including local customized disposal information and collection requirements for common and uncommon items.
Wondering if you should throw it away or if the item can be recycled? This tool makes it easy for people to quickly get that information for thousands of household items when they need it, and it is absolutely free thanks to the sponsorship from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Recycle Coach can be accessed through desktop computers and mobile devices. The desktop version is located on RICWMA’s website at https://ricwma.org/recycling/recycle-coach.
Recycle Coach is available for residents and businesses. Although most drop-off sites charge a fee for businesses, Recycle Coach is the first place to go for the drop-off information. There are many recyclers in the area that are willing to work with businesses on different recycling options. Rock Island County achieved a 27% recycling rate to date. Recycle Coach turns information into action. Earth Day’s 2026 theme is “Our Power, Our Planet” emphasizing community-driven action to accelerate the county’s progress toward a healthier environment.
Recycle Coach takes the guesswork out of recycling, empowering citizens to make smarter disposal decisions and take an active approach to reducing waste. For RICWMA, this will translate into higher recycling rates, less contamination in our local community recycling streams, and more items diverted from our landfills for reuse as another product.
Sarah Bambas and Gena McCullough of the Bi-State Regional Commission serve as RICWMA staff coordinators. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].
