Chicago's Bad Recycling Rate Drops Lower

Chicago citizens create nearly a million tons of waste a year, the Chicago’s online news source DNAinfo reported on November 21, but only 10 percent of it gets recycled and kept out of landfills. This diversion rate, which is the amount of waste that is diverted from landfill for recycling, is gradually going down. According to city data, in 2014, 11.08 percent of the city’s garbage was sent to recycling facilities, while in 2015 the recycling rate dropped to 10.23 percent. As of for the first three quarters of 2016, the percentage stands at 9.09 percent. Compared to other American cities such as San Francisco, which claims an 80 percent diversion rate, and Seattle, that diverts 60 percent of its garbage, Chicago performs poorly at recycling its waste. Even Chicago’s top performing North Side recycling “zone” only diverts 18 percent of waste.

The Department of Streets and Sanitation is partnering with the non-profit Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network to address the problem and figure out ways to boost the city’s participation. One of the biggest issues among the obstacles to recycling is the amount of trash people toss into the blue recycling carts positioned around all across Chicago as part of a $20 million recycling program rolled out in 2013. This frequently spoils all of the recycling in the cart. As a first step to combat the city's recycling problem, the sustainability network hosted a series of community meetings to "clarify what is and isn't recyclable, identify the biggest hurdles to recycling correctly, and to brainstorm ideas that could make the program more successful", according to DNAinfo. The last of those sessions took place last week at Horner Park, with residents attending from all over the North Side.