Recycling In Chicago

Did you know that the City of Chicago's blue bag program (ending this summer), run by the Department of Streets and Sanitation, serves only residential buildings from single family homes to four-unit apartment buildings?  If you live in an apartment complex five units or larger (like I have for most of the 14 years I have lived in Chicago), your recycling will be taken by a private contractor, not by the City, and they are not required to recycle the blue bag contents.  Well, I did not find this out until last week.  I have always suspected that the Blue Bag program was ineffective, but it was the only method of recycling available to me.  I don't have a car, so I put my recycling in a blue bag, and then the garbage truck came and took it away. Tragic waste.  How many people long to recycle like me? 

Well, Chicago is finally rolling out its new recycling system called the Blue Cart program. People are getting blue carts to put their recycling in, and the city will pick it up once every two weeks, separate from the regular trash.  But there are two major problems with this program.  One, it has only rolled out to a few wards thus far. Two, only residential buildings with four units or less get the blue carts. What are the thousands of people living in high rises supposed to do? What are businesses supposed to do?  

Come on, Chicago, if you want to be one of the greenest cities in the United States, you have got to come up with a more convenient way to recycle for everyone.  I will be walking my recycling to Uptown Recycling, but what about people who are not nuts about the environment like I am.  If you need more information on recycling in Chicago, check out the Chicago Recycling Coalition's website (not the City of Chicago's website).  You can find everything from what is recyclable to where you can drop off your recycling. 

A few more things the city needs to do:

• Provide a means for businesses to recycle, not only everyday items like glass and aluminum, but things like old office equipment, computers, desk chairs, etc.
• Provide recycling receptacles for aluminum cans and plastic bottles along the streets with the regular garbage cans.  In San Francisco, they make garbage receptacles that include a slot for aluminum cans and plastic bottles right on top. 
  
• Ban plastic bags.  They are harmful to the environment, and their production requires petroleum and often natural gas, both non-renewable resources.  Several cities in the US, San Francisco being the first, have banned plastic shopping bags. Some countries have even banned them, including China.