It all began with an old tire. Well, an old tire and a man passionate about cleaning up his hometown. Doug Scott was a fresh-faced law school grad when he took a job with the city attorney’s office in Rockford, Ill. Though he had been interested in the environment since childhood, it wasn’t until he began working with area residents that he really got his hands dirty, so to speak. There, he launched several initiatives that the town still employs today, including used tire pick-up and curbside recycling. What some might have seen as a risky move—introducing a cleanup campaign at a time when Rockford’s economy was on the downturn—paid off. PHOTO CREDIT: BOB WIATROLIK

“With an older city like Rockford, there are a number of challenges all the time, but people accepted the program pretty quickly,” says Scott, now beginning his third year as director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. ...

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