Here’s the deal: Do not put plastic bags, food, wood, clothing, cords, hoses, propane tanks, or construction waste into your recycling cart. And this warning goes out to my neighbors: Don’t put cat litter in there either!
After seeing DNAInfo’s story on the new stickers rolled out to enforce the city’s change in January 2016 from bagged to bagless recycling, and the detailed list of the stuff that, it turns out, can’t be recycled (paper coffee cups? pizza boxes?) my mind flooded with questions and hypotheticals: What if the plastic bag is so low down in the cart that the haulers don’t notice and dump it in the recycling truck? Would that truck wind up at the landfill? How is it be possible to check every truck to make sure they’re all free of the presence of even a single Styrofoam cup?
To that end, here’s a handy guide for what can and can’t be recycled in Chicago. And an explainer on how clean your containers need to be.
The city is encouraging building tenants to report landlords’ non-compliance by calling 311. Says McGann of Streets and San: “Our goal is to work with the property owner so they learn how to comply with the ordinance, get the private hauler there, educate their residents about the recycling.”
