Chicago recycling: Locals say it's not easy being green

"To me, it's surprising that Chicago claims to be so green yet recycling is so difficult," Bohnet said.

The city begs to differ on the state of recycling. Matt Smith, spokesman for the city's Streets and Sanitation Department, called recycling a priority for city government and noted the strides Chicago has made recently: trading blue bags for blue carts and doubling the number of recycling drop-off locations to 30.

"At a time when government has been cutting back on everything, and that's been for the past couple years, we continue to move this forward," Smith said.

Since it was introduced in 2005, blue cart service is available in parts or all of 29 of the city's 50 wards at a total of 241,000 households so far. Between January and June this year, 22,752 tons of recycled materials have been collected in blue bins--plus 1,547 tons of yard waste, which the city counts as recyclables--for a combined recycling rate of 14.72 percent, according to city data. The 2009 figure for half the year already is approaching the 28,698 tons of blue bin recyclables collected in all of 2008.

Parts of Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, Bucktown and Logan Square received blue carts in the city's latest rollout in June. But there's no word on when or where the next expansion of service will occur.  The city plans to deliver blue carts to 600,000 homes by 2011.

Still, there are limitations to the program. Only single-family homes and buildings of four dwelling units or less are eligible for city service, leaving high-rises to make recycling available themselves, which the city has mandated since 1995. The frustration for residents kicks in when buildings skirt the law.

Laura Seul lives in a Bowmanville apartment building that doesn't have recycling. For a time she threw away her recyclables, but later guilt-tripped herself into being green. Now, not only does she recycle, she also picks up materials her neighbors leave by the Dumpster and takes them to the drop-off center in Rogers Park.

"I just try to take care of myself and do what I can," Seul, 33, said.

She's not alone in keeping the drop-off sites busy. For the first six months of 2009, there were 2,024 tons of recyclables deposited, compared to 3,019 tons in all of 2008 and 1,455 tons in 2007, Smith said.

Melissa Kalensky, 27, of the West Loop drives her recyclables to the South Loop drop-off center on Clark Street near 17th Street. To her, there is no alternative.

"I can't just not [recycle]," she said. "I would love it if [my building] would do recycling ... I'd be willing to pay a fee because it is a hassle" to schlep her bottles and cans.

She said she was told her building doesn't offer recycling because it's too costly.

The problem, said Mike Nowak, president of the Chicago Recycling Coalition, is that residential buildings too often get away with ignoring the city's law to provide residents with a recycling plan, taking advantage of lax enforcement. (So far this year, 57 tickets have been issued for violating the ordinance, compared to 46 in 2008 and 85 in 2007, Smith said. The fine is $25 to $100 each day the ordinance is violated.)

A task force of city officials, haulers and environmental groups met this spring to propose ways to strengthen the law, Nowak said. Separately, a city study of recycling at 20 multiunit buildings in the 46th Ward last year called for more aggressive enforcement among its suggestions to improve the local recycling rate.

Nowak said he is waiting to see if the task force recommendations are used. No timetable has been set on how soon changes to the current ordinance could be proposed, Smith said.

The important thing is to make recycling convenient, said Ken Dunn, founder and president of the Resource Center, a nonprofit environmental education organization in Chicago. The Resource Center picks up recyclables for a fee at more than 100 apartment and condo buildings and operates drop-off locations separate from the city's.

"I've always felt we can only get widespread cooperation in recycling if recycling is as convenient as throwing it in the garbage," Dunn said.

It's not too convenient for Bohnet, the Lincoln Park recycler, or for her neighbors, she said. "I have two friends who live in my building and they don't recycle. They're not as green as I am and it's not convenient for them," Bohnet said.

For now, Bohnet keeps making her drop-off runs.

"It's not beneficial to throw stuff away, especially if it can be reused," she said. "It's just keeping your planet green. I have to live here." 

Rewarding recyclers
A New York-based company wants to reward Chicagoans for helping save the environment.
Starting this month, RecycleBank is offering a reward points program to about 10,000 households with blue carts in the 5th, 8th and 19th Wards with the goal of increasing recycling rates.

Participants will have their recyclables weighed at pick up. RecycleBank's reward system converts the pounds into points, which can then be redeemed online for rewards and gift cards. One pound equals 2.5 points, so, for example, 16 pounds of recyclables would net 40 points, which can be redeemed for a $4 discount off a $20 purchase at CVS.

How does RecycleBank know how to distribute the points? The blue carts involved in the rewards program have been retrofitted with ID tags to track individual recycling activity.
RecycleBank's goal is to divert 600 tons of waste in six months from the 10,000 participating homes, said Atul Nanda, RecycleBank's vice president in the Midwest region.

If the program proves successful, the company plans to roll out the program to 38,000 households in the three wards, he said.

Correction: The story has been corrected to identify the location of the drop-off center Bohnet uses. It is the Wrightwood Neighbors Recycling Station located at Sheffield, Lincoln, and Wrightwood avenues.