By recycling waste such as cardboard and glass, the owners of a local restaurant hope to raise enough awareness so their competition follows suit.

Gavin and Mary Wilson, owners of Hillside Restaurant, 121 N. Second St., said they’ve always wanted to recycle and recently took the initiative by calling DeKalb County Disposal. Now the restaurant recycles about 200 pounds or more of waste every week, Gavin said.

“We’re the first restaurant to set up a full service to have pick-up for glass,” he said.

Stressing they’re not belittling area restaurants that aren’t recycling, the Wilsons hope other area restaurants will follow their lead.

“We’re hoping others will follow suit. We’d like to help the recycling thing in general,” he said.

“We feel we have a social committment to further the cause. McCabes does it also but they have a different set-up,” Mary Said.

The Wilsons don’t take money for their waste. They said they believe it’s something that everyone must take part in. “Once someone takes the initiative, more will follow suit. It seems hard at the beginning, but the benefits outweigh the negatives,”she said.

Eduardo’s Mexican restaurant, 214 E. Lincoln Hwy., is one of the area restaurants not recycling at this time.

“For us right now, it’d be hard to get the glass in one place. Local houses have bins for recycling, but they don’t have as much waste as we do. We do recycle our cardboard though,” said manager Jim Balli.

Linda Lewis, manager at Matthew Boone’s Restaurant and Lounge, 122 S. First St., said they do “some” recycling, and have garbage picked up. “We’ve given some cans and bottles to customers,” Lewis said.

Sgt. Peppers, 1022 W. Lincoln Hwy., has been recycling for about a year now. “We use the NIU recycling bins for our glass, and our cardboard goes to the DeKalb disposal,” said owner Jim Havdke.

Jack Carpenter, owner of Amnesia, 1000 W. Lincoln Hwy, and Molly’s Eatery and Drinkery, 1022 W. Lincoln Hwy., said that his establishments just started recycling about three months ago.

Mike Muzzarelli, owner of the Crystal Pistol Beach Club, 1312 W. Lincoln Hwy., said they’re “giving it a shot” and are attempting to put together an efficient program, but are not recycling at this time.