Recycling in the City, Not an Easy Task

Welcome to the world of recycling.

Unless, that is, you live in Chicago, or more specifically, most of Chicago; in which case your invitation may be located several neighborhoods away.

For those individuals living in recycling deserts, and for whom not recycling is not an option, a trek to the nearest drop-off center is mandatory. Unfortunately the drop-off may be located miles away.

Reports of overflowing blue carts at recycling centers are both common, and well documented; only adding to the frustration of many city residents that hold recycling as a priority.

Recycling service in the city is spotty like bad cell phone reception, and to some residents, even more inconvenient. Since its inception five years ago, the city’s blue cart recycling service is stuck at servicing only 33 of the city’s 50 wards, with 33 centers in various communities across the city.

This is an improvement as, until recently, there were only 15 drop-off centers for the entire city—which, in itself, was an improvement upon the lamentable blue bag system, discontinued in 2005 under nearly constant scrutiny from individuals and organizations who found it inefficient.

While the Loop itself doesn’t have any residential blue cart service, the area is relatively flush with commercial recycling containers.

There is though just one drop-off location, at 1758 S. Clark St.

This is the good news.

Matt Smith, spokesperson for the Department of Streets and Sanitation, said 241,000 of 600,000 households are covered by the blue cart system.

Though there is no national law mandating recycling, the U.S. has consistently improved its recycling habits. Unfortunately the volume of garbage produced has outpaced the capacity to reuse.

Recycling takes many forms and involves various methods. It may be residential or commercial. It may swear by single-stream; the City of Chicago’s method of choice, in which individuals simply pile all recyclable materials into one bin for later separation, dual-stream; a method in which paper is separated from all other recyclable materials, or triple-stream processes; in which all materials are separated by sort.

It can be complicated and some doubt whether recycling, in itself, is even economically viable.

Support for this argument may be found in a recent report in the Chicago Sun-Times, which uncovered the existence of nearly $1 million in unused blue carts sitting in a South Side warehouse.

Fortunately, the city isn’t alone in the business of reprocessing used materials. Among the many private services found in Chicago’s South Loop is a company called Recycling Services Incorporated. The organization employs a dual-stream processing system and covers around 40% of downtown commercial buildings, including Columbia College. It specializes in paper recycling.

Bernadette McMahon, the company’s marketing director, balked at the idea of recycling not being economically viable.

“You have to have the desire to recycle in the first place;” she said, “but if there’s no way to recycle then what good is it?”

Recycling Services Inc. supports the use of products which “close the loop” which, basically, involves selling recycled materials back to companies that produced the waste in the first place. The company recycles nearly 400 tons of paper a day.

Another form of recycling service is found on the South Side at the Resource Center, the city’s largest, and oldest, non-profit recycler.

While the City of Chicago employs a single-stream process for its recycling, the Resource Center uses  the three-stream system, which Mike McNamee, the Center’s director, says is more efficient. According to McNamee, the single-stream method is more likely to produce waste by, for example, combining bits of glass with paper, rendering both materials unfit for recycling.

The three-stream system involves separating plastics, aluminums and paper from each other in order to allow more recyclable material and less waste due to contamination.

McNamee gives the city a grade of below average, largely due to what he calls its lack of enforcement that would otherwise encourage a greater rate of recycling.

He would also like to see the City publish a report detailing the amount of waste its single-stream process produces.

“If something is useful it’s important to do what you can to get it used,” said McNamee, “If you say ‘recyclable’ that means things can’t get thrown out.”

But changes to the city’s recycling system are unlikely to occur any time soon. The city announced in 2009 that no new funds for the blue cart system would be included in the 2010 budget.

“An extremely tough economy constrained future expansion and required us to focus on maintaining delivery of our most basic services,” said Smith, “When there is sustained improvement in the economy we can take another look at the possibility of renewing our expansion.”