Chicago Alderman Wants Mandatory Recycling

With voluntary participation plummeting and processing fees skyrocketing, it's time for Chicago to junk blue-bag recycling in favor of a mandatory program with designated bins, separate pickups and hefty fines for those who refuse to recycle, a Southwest Side alderman said Tuesday.

"We have to look at how much Chicago can save by having a successful recycling program. If we have to make it mandatory to be successful, then it should be," said Ald. Tom Murphy (18th).

"The people who are complying -- they're not going to have to face a separate tax for garbage pickup. That's a lot fairer than raising taxes [or imposing a first-ever] garbage collection fee."

Four months ago, Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez revealed that only 22 percent of the city's paper, cans and glass was recycled during the yearlong period ending in June 2004.

It was the worst performance since 1998 for a blue-bag program that environmentalists have criticized as unworkable from the get-go.

Curbside pickup idea floated

Mayor Daley responded by denying that blue-bag recycling was a failure. But he said a sticker experiment that allows homeowners to use plastic bags of any color will probably have to be extended citywide to boost sagging participation.

On Tuesday, Murphy said he's willing to give Daley's 47th Ward sticker experiment one more chance to succeed. But if that doesn't work, the alderman said it's time for Chicago to give up the ghost on the nine-year-old blue-bag program and do something different.

What Murphy is talking about is a less costly version of the suburban model, where recyclables are put in plastic bins and picked up curbside by a separate fleet of trucks.

The Chicago version, as Murphy envisions it, would not require a separate fleet. Instead, each ward would designate Streets and San trucks for pickups. Homeowners would get two carts and use one of them -- either stickered or with a lid painted blue -- exclusively for recyclables.

Recycling pickups would not necessarily have to be made every week, Murphy said. It might even be every two weeks. "Newspapers will not cause rats. Plastic containers won't cause that either. It isn't like you have garbage sitting there rotting. It's not food."

Daley pooh-poohed the idea of making recycling mandatory and penalizing homeowners.

"I can't grab 'em and say, 'You'd better do it.' I can't be fining [people] with rules and regulations. I'll be sitting there every day in front of someone's house," he said.

'People have just given up'

But the mayor acknowledged that something must be done to boost blue-bag participation.

"It's amazing -- America has kind of given up on recycling. ... All across America, they're not recycling anymore. People have just given up and said, 'I don't have to do it. I'll give money to the Wildlife Federation. Save the moon. Save the stars.' They feel more comfortable than saving the Earth," the mayor said.

Betsy Vandercook, president of the Chicago Recycling Coalition, said "real recycling" -- with separate bins and pickups -- would dramatically increase participation as well as the "quantity and quality."

"The problem now is you see one truck come down the alley and smash all of your good recyclables with the garbage and you know that very little is getting saved at the end of the line. People don't believe it's worth the extra effort," she said.

Vandercook warned that "ward-by-ward pilots" would have to precede any citywide effort, and a massive education plan would be needed.

"You can't expect to just throw some bins in the alley and tell people, 'Use them or we'll fine you,' " she said. - Chicago Sun-Times