This is the most frequent subject that brings my blog up in Google, so I thought I’d better make sure people were able to find the information they need. If you want my basic description of recycling in the city, you can read my initial post from July and the follow-up from about a week later.
For more complete info, here’s a list of resources on how to recycle in Chicago.
City of Chicago Dept. of Environment
This is the city’s official page with information on the different systems for recycling in all the various sorts of residential and commercial buildings in Chicago, with details on the Blue Bag Program. You will likely use blue bags if you either have your own home and your garbage is picked up by the city, or if you live in an apartment building that doesn’t have a better system set up.
The skinny about blue bags:
1. Buy them at most places you would buy regular garbage bags.
2. Separate your recyclables into three categories: paper, aluminum/glass/plastic, and yard waste. Keep each in a separate blue bag.
3. When they’re full, toss them in the dumpster or garbage can, and hope for the best.
Chicago Recycling Coalition
This page will probably be the most helpful in the long run. The Chicago Recycling Coalition (who, incidentally, are long-time critics of the city’s blue bag program) keep updated information on how/where to recycle in Chicago, as well as reports on their efforts to improve the status of recycling in the city. Their most recent report, Turning Blue Into Green, details both the failings of the blue bag program and ways Chicago could improve its recycling in the future.
They also have a section on how to get better recycling in your apartment if your landlord isn’t already offering it, and a list of how to recycle all sorts of items from computers to paint.
For anyone on the northside (or those willing to drive, I suppose) who want to take in recycling, the Resource Center has three drop-off locations:
North Park Village
5801 North Pulaski Road
Chicago, Illinois 60646
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily.
Accepts: aluminum and steel cans; brown, clear, and green bottles and jars; newspaper.
Uptown Recycling Station
4716 North Sheridan Road
Chicago, Illinois 60640
(773) 821-1351
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.. Closed Wednesday, Sunday, and holidays.
Accepts: aluminum and steel cans; brown, clear, and green bottles and jars; newspaper.
Wrightwood Neighbors Recycling
2600 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60614
(773) 821-1351
7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily.
Accepts: aluminum and steel cans; brown, clear, and green glass bottles and jars; newspaper.
The Resource Center website also has information on urban composting, and how to purchase reused items, from bikes to cardboard boxes and tennis balls.
There are lots of conservation and sustainability efforts going on that aren’t all recycling related. Here’s some more resources for a broader feel of green living in Chicago:
Center for Neighborhood Technology
thank you so much for this useful information. I have been searching for months on how to recyle. This is the most helpful info I have found to date. I am appalled that this city doesn’t have a better recyling program! Thanks for your information.
Glad I could help out! But remember that we won’t get better recycling unless we work for it – make sure to contact your alderman/alderwoman or the city and let them know you’re interested in a better system.
[...] to make use of the various resources that I put together. Please make sure to check out the Sustainability and Recycling in Chicago section, as well as the links to the various volunteer and wilderness [...]
I live in the Ukranian Village, do you know of any drop-off locations closer than those listed above? How can we convince our ward alderman to get the blue bins on our street!?!?
Will
I live in Chicago and I want to recycle.
The Blue Bag is a complete scam. Blue bags get tossed into garbage trucks and crushed up with all the regular garbage, thus spilling all of the contents.
Because it is run by the city, I am also very skeptical of the new big drop-off bins. I have seen items in those bins that don’t belong and I wonder if the city is truly going through all of the items and recycling, or just putting on a front similar to the Blue Bag.
I would perhaps be more likely to believe that the items dropped off at Wrightwood are actually being recycled since it is not a city run operation.