City must push forward in holding businesses, residential buildings responsible for recycling

Chicago can’t afford to lay waste on its recycling efforts.

Last year, less than 10% of its residential trash was recycled through the city’s blue cart collection program and drop-box recycling.

And even with laws on the books requiring businesses, apartment buildings and condo associations to recycle, the Streets and Sanitation Department still has room for improvement when it comes to enforcement, according to recent report by the city’s inspector general.

The Streets and Sanitation Department has corrected “two problems” and partly fixed another since the IG’s audit in late 2020 revealed that it “makes no attempt to identify noncompliant commercial or high-density residential buildings.” But it has a way to go, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said in her follow-up report earlier this month.

Adequately ensuring everyone is recycling is a monumental undertaking in a city as big as Chicago.

But if the task at hand isn’t addressed as swiftly as possible our landfills will be overflowing.

Nearly 500,000 Chicago households — 41% — live in multi-unit buildings, and 60,000 businesses are required to hire private garbage and recycling hauling services. That’s a lot of trash.

If we keep skirting accountability or fail to give residents the opportunity to recycle, the city will keep falling behind.

Streets and Sanitation officials said they are working on fulfilling the inspector general’s recommendations, which includes requiring garbage haulers to report businesses that fail to recycle.

Also encouraging is that the department has updated a mobile ticketing system and improved software for record keeping.

The city must keep at it and relay it is serious about penalizing those who aren’t following the requirements laid out in the amended Chicago Recycling Ordinance that took effect in 2017.

Individual Chicagoans can also do their part by encouraging their employers and landlords to hire a private recycling hauler. Condo owners in buildings with more than five or more units can also remind their boards about their recycling obligations.

If a gentle nudge doesn’t do the trick, demand it.

No one wants their businesses or residential buildings slapped with $500 to $5,000-a-day fines. However, the price Chicago would pay for eschewing its responsibility to the environment would be much steeper.

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