By Katherine Tu
Do you recycle?
To be honest, I will have to admit that it depends. Of course, we all want to save the turtles, avoid eating microplastics, and not end up buried in trash like the cities in Wall-E, but it’s so complicated.
Recycling rules differ by region, and what materials are accepted is always unclear. Styrofoam coffee cups are not, but paper ones are; pizza boxes are not, but once you remove their greasy liners, they are. What would happen if I accidentally threw in the wrong materials? Would that contaminate the whole bin? How do we know if any of the content actually gets recycled?
Chicago and Its “Contaminated” Recycling History
In fact, these questions are similar to those that Chicagoans have had for decades. Chicago’s recycling program started with the “Blue Bag” program in 1995, which was revealed to achieve only one-third of the reported recycling rates. There was a lack of data tracking procedures and transparency to the public, and an investigation by the Chicago Tribune later found that many of the blue bags were collected together with the rest of the garbage or dumped into the landfill.
The sentiment of distrust in the recycling system remained with Chicagoans after the program was replaced with “Blue Cart” in 2008, which is still running today. While the city has made significant progress in expanding coverage from around 200,000 households to 600,000 in 2020, Chicago still has one of the lowest recycling rates among peer cities. In 2024, Chicago’s household waste diversion rate (the amount of waste diverted from landfills) was 9.4%, while New York reported 20.2%, Minnesota reported 21%, Boston reported 25%, and West Coast cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles had diversion rates of 60-80%.
The city’s lack of credibility in its recycling program was exacerbated by the heavily criticized treatment of Waste Management (WM), the then-largest private recycling contractor in Chicago, from 2014 to 2018. Not only does it service half of the city’s residential recycling zones, but it also manages the largest for-profit landfill, which means that WM is getting paid to recycle each bin and send bins to landfill dumpsites. This may be the incentive behind why WM marked recycle bins as “contaminated” 20 times more than the other two contractors combined, responsible for 90% of all recycle bins that resulted in landfill dumpsites. Upon interviews from WBEZ Chicago, it seems unclear what the exact threshold is for bins to be tagged “contaminated” and entirely thrown into the dump site, and the Better Government Association argued that Chicago is the only city that allows private contractors to define this threshold.
Graphic from Better Government Association, 2018
On the other hand, 40% of the households live in buildings with five or more units, which is not covered under the city’s Blue Cart Program. The city ordinance requires these multifamily units to have private contracts with recycling facilities, and there would be a ticket or fine if this was found to be violated. However, the city does not track compliance with this ordinance. It does not ensure accurate and timely reports from these private haulers, according to the enforcement audit report conducted in 2020 due to strong public dissent. As more people have lived in higher-density buildings in recent years, this rings an alarming bell since more possible recyclable materials are not being collected.
A Renewed System
To address these issues, the city partnered with Delta Institute, a nonprofit specializing in municipal waste management, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to release the 2021 City of Chicago Waste Strategy. Since then, significant positive changes have been made, giving us hope for a better future.
First, WM no longer serves as a residential recycling contractor and the contract was passed on to Lakeshore Recycling Services (LRS) in 2021. The new contract announced a clear contamination standard of 50%, as “any Blue Cart that is less than 50% contaminated upon visual inspection must be collected and processed.” This avoids situations where a single plastic bag in the bin results in the entire bin being dumped into landfills, and penalties would be given for missed collections.
LRS opened a new material recovery facility in Chicago’s stockyard neighborhood in 2023, named “The Exchange.” The state-of-the-art facility included innovative sorting technologies capable of processing 25 tons of materials an hour and is now processing 90% of the recyclables from the Blue Cart program. They expect the capacity to increase further in the upcoming years, and it seems that all we need is to encourage more people to throw in the recycling bins and throw the right things in them. The facility is open for public visits, and Sam Marsden, a PhD candidate at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, has organized a visit. Feel free to hop on a virtual tour to see what is happening behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, the Delta Institute identified seven core strategies in their 2021 Waste Strategy, and progress could be tracked on the website. Some short-term priorities as of 2023 included enhancing private hauler reporting, improving high-density residential building compliance, establishing organic waste management, and supporting compost. Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a Packaging and Paper Stewardship Bill with full implementation anticipated in the summer of 2026. This bill places the responsibility of recyclable materials on producers and collects fees to power public recycling facilities, thereby significantly boosting the city’s recycling efforts.
Screenshot taken from Chicago Recycles, 2024
The city also made significant strides in recycling education and information transparency. On the city website, you can find who services your area in the Blue Cart program, the recycling schedule, what can be recycled, and where the recycled products go (Screenshot above). You can also scroll down the interface and check where each material goes, as shown in the screenshot below.
Screenshot taken from Chicago Recycles, 2024
Conclusion
Although the City of Chicago should still do many things to improve its recycling system, we, as residents, also have a crucial role to play. Nothing can be recycled if nothing is to be collected in the Blue Carts in the first place—no matter how fast or accurate the facilities are. We are all responsible for the success of our recycling system.
Here are a few simple steps we can take to contribute to change:
- Understand what can and cannot be recycled. You can search for anything you are unsure about here and check if it’s recyclable. The ‘Recycle Coach’ app is available for download for convenient look-ups. This app provides a comprehensive guide on what can and cannot be recycled, and it’s a handy tool for anyone looking to improve their recycling practices. As a rule of thumb, soft plastics and containers with food and liquids are NOT recyclable.
- Break the myth of contamination. Even if it seems like other people are throwing random things in the recycling bin, that doesn’t mean the entire bin will be dumped. We can still do our part to recycle correctly, enhancing the chance that the bin can be recycled.
- Spread the word. Recycling is a habit, and there is much to learn. Help rebuild the trust of the Chicago recycling system by directing people to the website, educating peers that our efforts would not be wasted, and let’s all help to direct Chicago away from becoming a Wall-E city surrounded by methane-emitting landfills.!
Discussion Question
What’s one challenge or hesitation you or your friends face when it comes to recycling effectively?
Join the conversation on Slack.
The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth is a collaborator of the UChicago Sustainability Dialogue, but is not responsible for the content.