Chicago still lacks tools to police recycling scofflaws: watchdog report

More than two years after a scathing report criticizing the city’s lack of enforcement of recycling laws, a watchdog says Chicago still hasn’t beefed up its oversight.

The Department of Streets and Sanitation doesn’t adequately police businesses, apartment buildings or condos to recycle, a city inspector general investigation found in late 2020.

The city “makes no attempt to identify noncompliant commercial or high-density residential buildings,” according to a report that laid out seven recommendations to crack down on recycling scofflaws.

In a follow-up report, Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said last week the city corrected two problems and partly fixed another but still has four areas that are inadequate, including creating a “proactive enforcement strategy.”

Under a city law amended in 2017, buildings that don’t follow requirements to recycle can face fines of up to $5,000 a day.

About 60,000 Chicago businesses are required to hire private garbage and recycling hauling services. There are similar requirements for thousands of residential buildings with five or more units.

The problem is that the city doesn’t ticket, according to the 2020 report.

In a three-year period, ending in December 2019, only three citations were issued after 97 complaint-based inspections, the inspector general found.

If businesses and apartment buildings don’t recycle, area landfills will reach capacity sooner than expected, the 2020 report warned. At least one prediction says those dumps may be full by the end of this decade.

The report also criticized the city for not ensuring that private trash haulers submit “complete, accurate and timely annual reports” about the businesses they serve. That corrective action was “partially implemented,” according to Witzburg’s office.

The inspector general also wants the city to require garbage haulers to report businesses that don’t recycle.

“We are actively working towards meeting the remaining recommendations,” the Streets and Sanitation Department said in a statement.

The department did update a mobile ticketing system to help inspectors if they need to issue tickets and improved software for recordkeeping, the follow-up report found.

Brett Chase’s reporting on the environment and public health is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.