The Ugly Truth About Recycling In Chicago

by Missy on Saturday, September 20th, 2008

I just read a fantastic (but very long) article on the state of recycling in Chicago. In Chicago there is the blue bag program, which is the city’s recycing initiative started by then Mayor Harold Washington in the early 80’s.

Recycling efforts have made a small dent in the garbage in Chicago, but what about the landfill situation.

It isn’t enough to simply pick it up, and then leave it waste away un-hinged. Also as the article points out, if more spaces are created to hold our waste, all this will create and foster is more waste, as instead of cleaning up one landfill, there will be many to clean up.

In Chicago the number of landfills is increasing, well guess what, so is the amount of garbage. One would think that if 12 landfills exist and they are not being cleaned up and taken care of, what is going to happen if instead just more landfills are created. That is a no brainer answer to me.

Mayor Daley has been applauded for his environmental efforts, but there is still much more that needs to be done. It is a topic that needs to be discussed and laws (or ordinances) have to be put in place, and then those laws have to enforced by accountable people.

Waste is growing in Chicago, and folks, creating more landfills is not that answer.

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Tags: chicago, environmental efforts, Garbage, landfills, mayor daley, mayor harold washington, recycing, recycling efforts

Categories: Eco Friendly.

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Alison

Being born and raised in the Chicago area, the landfill problem is something I have heard about here and there. I believe cook county and the surrounding areas need to make a better, healthier and permanent solution.

In my hometown, one way they dealt with a landfill was covering it in sod and turning it into a golf course. While this was an innovative way to solve the problem, I feel like it only really "covered" up the real mess. I still cringe just thinking of what toxins, chemicals, and other hazardous materials have since been filtering into the surrounding soil, and tangentially, our water sources.

Missy

Hey, Alison:
Another Chicagonite, sweet. Wow, a golf course created on a landfill. Hmm, i wonder which one? LoL. I can't imagine they would create something so beautiful, on a spot that was not clean and healthy to begin with. What a scary concept. It makes no sense, but maybe they did clean it up some, before creating the golf course.

In any case, nice to see you commenting.

devin90

There was a gigantic hill out in Bolingbrook, IL. in the middle of a wonderful forest preserve area. I came to find out that the hill was indeed a covered up and SEALED landfill.

I talked to my mother, who works for Waste Management, and she said it actually is completely sealed, except for the piping that they harvest methane gases from.

So it doesn't pose any danger of leachate contamination in the surrounding water and soil. It does provide a gigantic barren hill in the middle of a forest preserve : )

p.s. - yea, the blue bag recycling program is a joke. It just goes in with the regular garbage and is crushed, etc. Then they grab an occasional ripped bag. There was a big news story about this last year.