Chicago gets experimental

Recycling Today, Feb, 2005

Chicago officials have designed a pilot program for homeowners in the 19th Ward on the city's southwest side that will more closely resemble curbside recycling programs in other big cities.

This spring, the city will distribute bins to homes participating in the 19th Ward pilot and ask residents to collect metal, paper and plastics, according to local reports.

City dumptrucks will collecttrash and recyclables in separate runs. Currently, blue bags and trash are collected together in the same trucks and separated at a privately owned facility.

The city also has launched a two-year, $700,000 educational campaign to promote recycling as a way to enforce and promote the city's Blue Bag recycling program.

According a release from the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation, 74 percent of Chicago's waste stream does not flow through the residential Blue Bag program. To combat this, the city has opened its four sorting centers to private haulers, encouraging them to divert recyclables from landfills. Money raised by selling recyclables is split among haulers, the city and Allied Waste Industries Inc., the city's recycling contractor.

Inspectors will also reportedly enforce a law that requires multifamily buildings, office buildings and restaurants to recycle.