From Trash to Cash

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Our Parks Services Department has evolved from the old days of taking scrap metal in for the "slush fund" - which we used to buy coffee and supplies for the break room. Of course, things have changed and in order to keep our ethical standards in tact, we abolished the "slush fund." The Morton Grove Park District has a transparent operation policy and will not use taxpayer money for buying coffee. So, we began throwing metals in the dumpster and paying a scavenger service to haul our scrap metals away in a recycle truck, or having the local scrap guy take them for free. This troubled me - we were literally throwing money away. Here we were paying to have our scrap removed, which costs the district money, or we were giving it away. What could we do to make this into a positive process?

A light-bulb moment... why not take the metal in ourselves, get cash for it and donate the money? This presented another challenge - where do we donate this money? You guessed it , another light bulb! One of our employees suggested we give it to the needy in Morton Grove. Our town, like many others, has residents who have fallen on hard times financially. We have a financial assistance program to help those in need utilize our programs. We decided to donate any cash from the scrap metal collections and give it to the financial aid line in our budget. Now doesn’t this make sense? The proceeds generated from the recycled material, as it is diverted from the waste stream, is trackable, recordable, accountable and responsible. That clearly defines the term transparency. We literally take the trash and turn it into cash to help our residents that need it.

-Greg Jayne, Morton Grove Park District