Official Recycling thread (Chicago, Aurora, Naperville: appointed, Home Depot, buying)

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by aragx6

Thanks for reminding me Avenger... the weather has been nice and I have been lazy- but I am going to talk to them when I get back from my road trip this weekend.

Where are you going this weekend?

[Avengerfire]

You can recycle your used worn out gym shoes (shoes need not be of the Nike brand) at:
Niketown
669 N MICHIGAN AVE
Chicago, IL 60611

For locations in the burbs where to drop off the shoes look on:
Let Me Play » Reuse-A-Shoe: How It Works (broken link)

Here are the guidlines:

"* To keep our recycling equipment running smoothly, we have a few guidelines for recycling:
• Athletic shoes only (any brand)
• No shoes containing metal
• No cleats or dress shoes
• No wet or damp shoes"

[Avengerfire]

Great page to check out:

From PDAs to packing peanuts, new ways to keep old things out of the trash - Forecast Earth

[Avengerfire]

I dont know how I missed this but the city announced that the Blue Bag system is officially over. It will be phased out by the end of 2011. The Blue Cart system is taking over.

City scraps troubled blue bag program -- -- chicagotribune.com

Blue bags out, blue carts in :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State

Chicago Reader Blogs: Clout City

[Avengerfire]

Another site to drop off items I neglected to add when I intially made this thread:

Railyard Buyback Center
1325 East 70th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637
(773) 493-1470

9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily. Landscapers may tip as early as 7:00 a.m.. Closed Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.
Accepts: aluminum and steel cans; brown, clear, and green glass bottles and jars; mixed paper, including cardboard; newspaper; yard trimmings and landscape waste.
================================================== ===========
Also another place to drop off unwanted bicycles:

Blackstone Bicycle Works | Experimental Station

[aragx6]

OK, I need help understanding this...

I haven't been around long enough, so I don't understand what the problem with the blue bags is. The article you posted talks about two major problems.
1. Low participation
2. Blue bags put in with other garbage (which the article calls uncommon)

What's wrong with the recycling being in blue bags and mix? Isn't that easiest? We always had that at my house growing up (St. Peters even won an award for having such a high participation rate - 60%) and it was crazy easy... very little effort was required on our part. We just had two trash cans in our kitchen- a regular and a recyclables and took them to the dumpster at the same time. We did the same thing at school in Columbia (thank God as our party duplex was going through at least 100 bottles and cans a week!)

So why didn't people participate? One article mentions people didn't believe it would actually get recycled (and often it didn't) so how is that going to change with the carts?

[Avengerfire]

The bags would tear open or exploded often from the compactor on the truck and get mixed with raw garbage making the materials unusable. Most people also did not want to have to pay for the blue bags. They were/(are) not cheap and there was only a few kinds that were "official". It was an insider deal. The whole thing had corruption and fraud written all over it.

The materials in the carts are picked up in a seperate truck that only picks up recyclables so the chance that materials would be ruined is far less. You dont have to put the stuff in bags and the effort is minimal. Also, you dont have to spend money to do it.

[aragx6]

The cost thing is a pretty legitimate point... they gave us free bags both places I'd been part of the blue bag program in the past- hard to say if I'd do it for a fee. And if I wouldn't do it (and I care about recycling) I can't imagine they'd have gotten many converts.

[Avengerfire]

This is the city link for questions and info regardling city recycling programs:

City of Chicago - Recycling Chicago

[Avengerfire]

Announcement:
City will expand Recycling bins to all parks.

cbs2chicago.com - Park District To Expand Recycling Program