Recycling Guide for Chicagoans

Now that all Chicago households with city trash service have recycling blue carts, the challenge is to get more people to use them, and use them properly. And that's exactly what the city and its partner company Waste Management are focused on going forward. 

Americans generate 251 million tons of waste each year, which is 30% of the world's trash, yet the U.S. only makes up 5% of the world's population. As the Total Recycling Program Manager for Waste Management, who used to work for the Department of Environment, Meghann Maves knows all about our garbage. 

"We have too much trash," she said. "Our goal is to get more recycling in the U.S."

At a recent recycling talk, Maves shared a graphic description of our trash with what she called a "scary landfill photo." Illinois puts its trash in landfills, she said, but it's an old model and hard to get new sites approved for zoning.

"Garbage lasagna" is the idea, starting with clay and gravel at the bottom and trash layered up from there. The problem is, it doesn't stay layered, she said, and we end up with mountains of trash. So we need to find ways to reduce the trash - and the increasing costs associated with it - by recycling more materials. 

Recycling starts with education; people need to know what CAN be recycled. To get this message across, the city is now using photo based signs, such as the one at the right. 

Single-Stream recycling means all recyclables go in the same (blue) carts: steel, tin and aluminum; plastic bottles and containers (except styrofoam); paper, cardboard, dairy and juice box-type containers; glass bottles and jars.

The key is to put items in the right bin - trash or recycling - and avoid contamination. The drier, the better, but even wet paper is recycled (for packaging). "If it tears, we'll take it," Maves said, so coffee cups are NOT recyclable.

Diapers are the biggest issue, and go in the trash. Also for the trash bin: food waste, plastic bags, foam cups, food containers including greasy pizza boxes, and chemicals, oils and paints. Aluminum foil is fine to recycle if not too soiled. Food-grade glass is okay too, but if it has a lot of liquid in it, it's best to put it in the trash to keep recycleables clean. Styrofoam is a big No No - and "if it squeaks and cracks, it cannot be recycled." 

Electronics cannot go in landfills as of Jan. 2012, per Illinois' Electronic Waste Recycling Act. The law requires product manufacturers take back used electronics to safely recycle them. For most items, Best Buy is your best bet. Abt in the Chicago suburbs also recycles items, including appliances. ComEd has recycling programs for fridges and freezers. 

Plastic bags will soon be outlawed in Chicago, Meghann said, and retailers will be required to take them back and recycle them. The bags get caught in the sorting lines and are dangerous, and of course they are unsafe for wildlife and unattractive in the environment as well.

After trucks pick up blue carts, they head to a "Material Reclamation Facility," or "MRF," where 'man and machines' sort the moving lines of material. If it's clean, the items are sorted, baled and recycled. But as I mentioned in my last post, we're only at a 14% recycling rate now.

The city's Household Hazardous Waste site at Goose Island (1150 N. North Branch St.) - accepts many items not allowed in blue carts or landfills. The full list is on their site and check the hours of operation before you drive over to drop off: antifreeze, expired medications, motor oil/gasoline, oil-based paints, aerosol paints, pesticides, propane tanks, lead batteries, lawn chemicals, solvents, drain cleaner, cleaning products, pool and other chemicals, mercury CFL and flourescent lightbulbs, computers, cell phones and accessories, household electronics, TV's and rechargeable batteries.

Lightbulbs - regular CFL's - can be dropped off at Home Depot stores and should not be put in landfills or recycle bins. The recycle spots should be in front of the stores, Meghann said.

Compostable bags decompose in air but in landfills they breakdown at about the same rate as regular plastic bags, Meghann said, so this is not quite a solution to the plastic bag issue.

Plastic bottles: lightly crush and put caps on so they're easily pulled from sorting line and recycled. Cat litter buckets are recyclable. Aseptic boxes (chicken broth or almond milk cartons) are lined with aluminum and recyclable; rinse them out to avoid contaminating other recyclables.  Heavily soiled or greasy items should go in the trash for the same reason. 

A few 'source reduction tips' from Meghann:

* Foam: Avoid retailers and restaurants that use styrofoam containers (they can't be recycled and contaminate other materials).

* Plastic bags: Carry reusable bags and keep them in your car or on your bike.

* Paper (coffee) cups: Bring your own mug or have a cup at home.

* Hazardous chemicals: Find other options - for things like pesticides, aerosols, etc. (and put aerosol cans in trash as they are a fire hazard). 

* Compost food waste. Waste Management is starting a test program with some restaurants to try to build a market for compost. Backyard composting is also encouraged by the city to keep materials out of landfills. See Urban Worm Girl. 

Ald. Pawar's office created a handy Recycling Guide with details about where and how to recycle everything from batteries to yard waste. You can also call the Recycling Hot Line at: (312) 744-5702 if you have questions about certain materials.

Let's reduce that mountain of trash and see if we can't reach the 25% recycling rate the city said is a good 'base line'. Maybe we can do it 

The State of Recycling in Chicago

 

Some things changed since I wrote state officials agreed Illinois was not doing enough to recycle in 2007. I've followed recycling efforts, as a writer and resident, so I went to a recent Recycling Talk to find out the current state of recycling in Chicago.

First - and FINALLY - all Chicago area homes have Blue Carts since fall of 2013, or approximately 600,000 households. Getting carts to all those homeowners took seven years after the initial test pilot program in the Beverly neighborhood in 2005. 

Chris Sauve, Program Director for Recycling for the City of Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation, kicked off the discussion, hosted by the 47th Ward (Ald. Pawar) last week at Sulzer Library, with basic Blue Cart statistics. He said recyclables in blue carts are picked up every other week throughout the city with service in 6 zones, each zone handled by the City's Streets and Sanitation Department OR a private hauler (depends on the zone).

The program is a unique partnership between city government and private trash haulers, he said, and "managed competition" helps keep prices down. It's better, meaning cheaper, Sauve said, for taxpayers to recycle items rather than putting them in a landfill.

Chicago's current cost to recycle is about $19.9 million with the partner arrangement between the city and private haulers.The city services 2 zones, Waste Management services 3 zones and Sims Recycling services 1 zone for a total of about 120,000 tons of recyclables currently. That compares to an annual cost of $31.7 million when the city handled it alone. That's better. 

Not Great: Only 14% recycle rate

But it's Not Great: Chicago's recycling rate is just 14%, for the 1st months of 2014, and Sauve said that rate is "not great." Each month, they calculate how much material is diverted from landfills and the city reports recycling results on its website. 

Now that there are carts in all homes, the Streets and Sanitation Department can start working to promote and educate residents on the program, to increase the amount of materials recycled. A 20 to 25% rate is a decent baseline, Sauve said. 

"Getting carts out was our first challenge," said Chris Sauve. "But training people to use them properly is an even bigger challenge going forward - and we have a long way to go."

Chicago uses "Single-Stream Recycling," which means all types of materials are combined in the blue recycling carts and later separated at sorting facilities. Contamination does occur, particularly affecting paper items, but single-stream saves space with fewer bins, is easier so people don't have to sort materials and thus more people participate, and collection costs are lower, as there are fewer bins and trucks required.

 Keep it LOOSE! Don't use bags. It's easier to process and pull out recyclables at the facilities, which is done both by machine AND by hand. A quick rinse of bottles and jars helps reduce contamination. If materials are very soiled, with grease or paint, put them in the trash rather than contaminating all the recyclables. 

Yard waste bag

What goes in blue carts? YES: cans, glass jars and bottles, paper food containers, envelopes, magazines, cardboard and plastic bottles #1-5 and #7. NO: Food waste, styrofoam or plastic bags* (which will likely be outlawed in Chicago soon). Also: No electronics!! (More on that later). For a full list of what's accepted in blue carts (and not), go to the city's site HERE. 

For more details, go to: www.chicagorecycles.org 

One of my questions as a gardener was about yard waste. I've already filled a dozen brown yard waste bags and set them at the curb on trash day. I was discouraged to see the regular trash truck haul them away in April. I suspect it was NOT being composted, so I asked Chris Sauve about it at the meeting.

Yard waste is currently being picked up with the regular trash service (and not being composted), he said, while the city gets a plan and funding in place. He encouraged residents to keep bagging their yard waste, as the city should have things up and running soon. for this seasonal program, that runs from April until October or November.

The city's site on yard waste was just updated with the following on yard waste:

If you are in a Blue Cart service area then Yard Waste will now be collected 
every other week by our Yard Waste Crews, pick-up will be on the same week as your blue cart collection.

Composting is something the city would like to tackle on a larger scale, Sauve said, but it won't be any time soon. One idea they've had is to repurpose extra black trash carts for yard waste - and this makes a lot of sense as people will need less space for trash as they recycle more.

At our house, we have 3 black trash carts and 2 blue recycle carts and we generally fill more blue carts than black ones. We don't use one black cart, so using it for yard waste is brilliant. Last night, I set out 3 bags of yard waste when it was 90 degrees and dry, only to wake up to the sound of heavy rain and see the bags getting soaked. Next time, I'll use the extra black cart and put some sort of sign for Yard Waste on it. 

The city encourages residents to compost at home and once helped make compost bins and rainbarrels, as well as native plants and trees, more affordable for residents, but those rebate programs are being phased out. Composting is a great way to keep material out of landfills, and using compost bins has decreased the amount of trash we throw out every year, for sure. It's too bad we don't get a discount on our trash service! 

So, hurray, Blue Carts are finally here!! Now, it's time to get out and put them to use, Chicago! With the city's current recycling rate at only 14%, we can certainly go up from there.

Thar She Blows - Through our Home!

Blower door tests if home is well sealed (or not)

Beverages exploded, things froze and plants died in our sunroom this winter. The new screen on the back door let water and snow inside. Holes above the utility sink and for an old stove vent let cold air inside easily and all the time. These issues were obvious this winter.

On a bigger scale, I knew there was little or no insulation as I'd seen inside the walls when we rehabbed the kitchen. I'd also seen inside the attic on the 3rd floor, where the previous owners installed an air conditioning unit for the top 2 floors. The unit sat on the wood floor of the attic with open air space all around it. 

We know we have a leaky old 'ship' and are ready to do something about it: starting with a Home Energy Assessment. 

From People's Gas site, I clicked links for residential rebates and incentives and landed at Energy Impact Illinois. This is an alliance of local utility companies and government agencies funded by a line item on our utility bills, the "energy efficiency fee." This non-profit works with homeowners and is part of the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT). 

The affiliations and acronyms may be confusing, but the work is straightforward: they help Illinois residents lower their home energy costs and give details about energy-related rebates and incentive programs, including tax credits and low interest loans. The thing that caught my eye was the FREE home energy assessment. 


I read the page, looking for fine print. I called and was told it was true: you can get a full home energy assessment - for free - if you host a "Home Energy House Party," so I set a date with Elevate Energy (the new name of the CNT Energy group). 

I invited neighbors and a few friends who own houses to the house party and coordinated with Eric at Elevate Energy, who made arrangements with a contractor, DNR Construction. 

Contractor Mike first went around the outside of the house to check for issues causing energy loss. He noted the vent from the old hood above the kitchen stove had a plastic bag stuffed inside it. He saw the back door wasn't sealed or weatherstripped and leaked. And he said the fan above the utility sink served no purpose other than to let in cold air. 

Home "heat map" shows heat loss areas

In front, he saw no insulation in the sunroom that was enclosed years ago but still dangerously cold, and snow started to fall while we assessed the house. The floor by the back door was also not insulated, which is why the kitchen floor is so cold.

In the basement, Mike checked the boiler and water heater using a "Testo," which made me laugh at the simple name. It literally tests if appliances are working by checking if they have a charge. The appliances checked out okay but he noticed cobwebs along the basement walls, which indicates airflow (or the spiders wouldn't go there).

Up in the attic, there wasn't much to look at since you can see wood beams on the floor and sloped ceiling clearly - and not a single layer of insulation. If heat didn't rise, we would not have been able to have houseguests upstairs this winter.  

After checking for any other holes and making sure the fireplace flu was closed, Mike set up the blower door test. He unrolled it and put it snuggly in place outside our open front door and placed a round fan in the bottom. When he removed the fan cover, he said the fan should be the only open hole in the house.

He turned on the fan to the equivalent of a 24 mile per hour wind - and then you walk around to see what you find - and feel. We also had a handheld infrared camera that showed cool spots that were leaking air, and often it was more air loss in the walls than the windows, surprisingly.

But we didn't need any device to tell us where MOST of the air was flowing from - as the blower door fan clearly pulled it through the whole house. The back door leaked a bit, which we knew. The basement did a little bit - but not nearly as much as I would have thought.

By far the biggest culprit was the attic - and it felt like a 20 mile an hour wind when you walked up to the 3rd floor of our house. It was SHOCKING to feel that much air flowing out of the attic, down the stairs and throughout the entire house!!

Testing a home's air movement is a critical part of the assessment, and shows how important it is to not only insulate but also SEAL the air leaks. This is part of the energy efficiency and weatherization training contractors get from the Building Performance Institute. 

The goals of weatherization are to make the home more comfortable and also perform better. The average savings for energy costs is $400 to $500 per year, they told our group - and their goal is to achieve at least 15% on energy costs after the work is completed.

Illinois is the first state to recognize home energy improvements as adding value to the home. When work is completed, and energy savings are confirmed compared to the initial home assessment, the homeowners can request an Illinois Home Performance Certificate, which shows the specific upgrades made on the home, and the contractor that did the work. 

Also, the certificate can be directly listed into MLS when the homeowner sells the home. Thus, the homeowner can get their money spent on improvements back via energy savings AND see an increased value for the sale price of their home down the road.

Within 2 days of the house party, we got an estimate for sealing and insulating our home and we scheduled the work for next week. We'll do all we can to keep our home warm, energy efficient and cozy - and we won't miss the "attic effect" winds next winter, that's for sure!