Chicago has long had a reputation for being stagnant when it comes to recycling performance among major cities. City officials and local stakeholders believe that could change soon. .
After releasing a detailed waste strategy last summer, Chicago has expanded its Department of Streets and Sanitation program staff and is looking to new initiatives. The department touted its recent announcement of an organic matter drop-off partnership with a community garden. Officials hope to improve the performance of the city’s Blue Cart Home Recycling Program.
Chicago’s July 2021 report did not set specific recycling rates or waste reduction targets, but did include 12 short-term priorities through 2022. He says the changes are well underway.
Bill Schreiser, CEO of The Delta Institute, a nonprofit focused on environmental and economic issues in Midwestern communities, said: Waste management has a bad reputation, but when we opened it up, it became clear that the city had many opportunities to rethink what it does and what it can do as a city. rice field. ”
Schreiser said Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration has learned in part from the investigative process, creating new infrastructure around these issues and better coordinating priorities between DSS and other agencies. are working to The city also has a major climate assurance initiative pointing to “organic waste diversion” as a potential community climate investment, and DSS has started adding new staff.
DSS Assistant Commissioner Carter O’Brien is one such hire. O’Brien took over in October after years of leadership roles in the Chicago Recycling Coalition, tasked with advancing the city’s waste strategy.
November Pumpkin Smash event at Chicago’s Lakeview High School
Licensed by the Chicago Department of Road Health
Organic recycling will be a primary focus, including the recent Pumpkin Smash recycling event and upcoming community garden projects. DSS plans to install composting systems in six community gardens to give local residents the option to dispose of their food waste. The finished compost is used in the garden. The project is done in partnership with the non-profit organization His NeighborSpace and is funded by grants from the City and the Natural Resources Defense Council. O’Brien explained that it’s important from both a diversion and fairness standpoint.
“There are real benefits to many of these communities in Chicago,” he said, citing legacy soil contamination issues and the ability to create local, circular organic matter recycling systems. If you weave it back, it will have a much better use. ”
in numbers
4.13M
monthly collection fee DSS It is an amount that cannot fully cover the costs of the city.
9.7%
The city’s Blue Cart program is also seen as ripe for further change. An estimated 620,000 households are available across single-family homes and buildings of four units or less. The program has not been well received in recent years due to high cart rejection rates and questions about the effectiveness of the recycling process.
The city signed a new contract to local firm LRS last year, marking a shift from previous contractors. LRS processes Blue Cart Collections in his four zones of the City and processes all Blue Cart Materials collected. DSS collects blue cart materials in his two remaining zones, and all Chicago residential waste from small buildings.
Mr. Schleizer described the opportunity to update contractual terms on contamination and data collection as a key step, creating a more structured cycle for contract renewals. His DSS Commissioner, Cole Stallard, said at a recent budget hearing that these updated procedures “report a significant reduction in blue cart pollution across the city.”
LRS co-founder and director Joshua Connell says his company tags and rejects 60 percent fewer collection carts than his previous hauler.
“The city is doing a great job. The materials look good,” Connell said. He noted that education could be a little more complicated due to how the city’s alley network is set up.
Maria Rachel/Waste Dive
Connell said there is no revenue-sharing element in the deal and LRS is taking commodity risk, which could prove difficult if the market goes down like it does in 2022. In February, at the city limits, some of the Blue Cart material will be processed through more advanced sorting equipment. Connell also believes that due to the nature of what LRS accepts, recycling rates may continue to improve.
“We can take more goods than anything [residents] I was used to “We can use polypropylene, aseptic containers, milk cartons, and anything else that may have been part of the residual waste stream before,” he said. I have always been more proactive, but also more creative, in finding solutions to
Mr O’Brien said he heard little about contamination concerns since the LRS took over. The fact that LRS serves Chicago’s public school districts and collaborates with recycling education there, and the fact that it also deals with many of the city’s large apartment complexes, makes it possible for “all of us to be effective.” It makes it much easier to share a consistent message with
Connell estimates that recycling could increase significantly if the city adopted weekly collections. Such a decision also comes with financial considerations, as Chicago’s monthly collection rate is already relatively low, but one of the city’s goals is to “ensure proper distribution and bin sizes from blue carts to black carts.” option to consider.
O’Brien said it’s too early to know when changes to weekly collections or related collection policies will become viable, but he’s optimistic about the city’s ability to continue with the changes.
“The more we can reduce waste, the more resources and time and capacity we can open up to potentially recover other materials more frequently.”
The city also says it’s too early to know if or when recycling of organic matter on the street will be viable. There’s still room for improvement.A report last week from Axios showed that DSS’s pick-up of garden waste has declined as customer demand for its services has increased.
“I think the drop-off program will work. [service] Citing LRS’ experience with various organic collection programs in other markets, Connell said, “It takes time. Chicago is a big city.”
Connell et al. said that processing infrastructure and end markets will be important parts of the equation. More composting capacity is expected to come online in the area, along with new anaerobic digesters at the city limits.
Schreiser said his team recognizes that public-private partnerships are an important way to accelerate development of organics processing, among other areas, and that when it comes to organics, “we’re the first to do something really interesting in Chicago. I believe that we are at a stage.
Broader policy factors, such as state extended producer responsibility laws on packaging and city commercial waste zone schemes, are also identified in the report as possible factors. Schreiser said there was a lively debate between state and local legislators, but no imminent policy action was expected.
As Chicago works on all these ideas (and many others related to commercial, institutional and construction waste), DSS says progress may be gradual, but it’s happening.
“We are ready for success,” O’Brien said. It’s a marathon, not a race. ”
