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Chicago Blue Bin Recycling comes to Beverly!

By Betsy Vandercook

It's not often that a few thousand people can have a direct – and positive – effect on a city of 2.8 million. But if you live between Western Avenue and Longwood Drive, and 99 th and 103 rd streets, your participation in Chicago's new recycling pilot program may be the beginning of a major shift in the city's management of its waste.

Since 1995, there has been only one recycling program offered by the city to its residents. In every neighborhood, households have been asked to buy blue plastic bags, fill them with clean recyclables, and then mix them back together with garbage in the single black totes behind their homes.

The results were predictable. According to the city's own surveys in 2002, only 13.3 percent of Chicago's residents put out blue bags even once a month. Compare this with participation rates of 70 to 90 percent in the suburbs and cities surrounding Chicago. Even New York City, which faces many of the same challenges as Chicago (dense housing, diverse population, need for multi-lingual education), enjoys close to a 90 percent participation rate.

Now it's your turn! Thanks to the efforts of Ald. Virgina Rugai plus pressure from recycling activists in the 19 th Ward and throughout the city, a small slice of Chicago will finally be given the opportunity to recycle like most of the rest of the country – with separate bins for recycling and garbage. One Streets and Sanitation truck will roll down your alley to pick up the trash and yard waste, while a second will make weekly pickups of your recyclables, including paper, cardboard, and bottles and cans. That alone will dramatically increase participation and the amount of recyclables collected.

But there are several additional elements to the Beverly pilot that are sure to make the program an even bigger success:

* Take a close look at the new recycling instructions distributed by the city. Thanks to the capabilities of Resource Management, the company chosen to process your recycling, there are a number of materials that you'll be able to recycle for the first time. Not only can you put out plastics #1 and #2, but #3, #4, #5 and #7 plastic bottles and containers and even waxy orange juice and milk cartons and juice packs!

* In addition to the outdoor alley totes, the bin manufacturer is offering pilot-area homes three sizes of smaller indoor bins to assist you in your recycling efforts. And there will also be bumper-type “Beverly Recycles!” stickers available for use indoors or out. The goal is to make this a real, community-based, community-pride effort.

* Along with their parents, kids will be getting involved with recycling thanks to new educational curricula being developed by local teachers. Not only will students be learning about the “other” three R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), but may develop publicity and even help monitor the pilot's progress.

Could the new recycling program be improved? Well, that's the whole point of a pilot! For example, the recycling totes are 96-gallon, rather than the 65-gallon standard used by most programs. We certainly hope the city isn't tempted to reduce pickups to every other week, based on the larger capacity. Why not try several size bins as the program expands?

Another improvement would be to add separate collections for yard waste. Currently the plan is to haul it in the same truck with the refuse. Comprising about 12 percent of our waste stream, yard clippings can be composted and used to enhance soil – but only if they are kept clean and separate.

And finally, the pilot's one-year length could be reduced by half or more. After all, programs like these have already worked for decades throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. We have no doubt that after a few months, Beverly's pilot will be a certified success, both in terms of participation and recycling rate.

Then it's the city's job to expand this program as rapidly as possible throughout Chicago. We know that people throughout the 19 th Ward and beyond are already clamoring for their own blue bins! We look forward to the day when the pilot program extends to Morgan Park and Mt. Greenwood, and then reaches on to Austin, Gresham, Lakeview, Englewood, Rogers Park, and more to create an entire city that recycles.

Betsy Vandercook is president of the Chicago Recycling Coalition. You can reach the CRC by writing info@chicagorecycling.org or visit www.chicagorecycling.org .