The ordinance focuses on stores larger than 50,000 square feet so as not to burden small stores with an additional expense, Moreno says. more ›

Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st Ward) is proposing the city ban plastic bags and fine stores for providing them to cut down costs on clean-up and more ›

Vendors at any of the 24 Chicago-run farmers markets won’t be able to participate in next year’s selling season unless they stop using plastic bags. The bag ban, imposed by the city of Chicago, is meant to reinforce the city’s message to “go greener.” more ›

Dear Chicagoist, more ›

That ridiculous bag ban that would criminalize tiny baggies has hit a bump in the road to useless legislation. Health Committee chairman Ed Smith is holding the ban in committee until everyone can air his or her concerns about how stupid the idea is, and what a waste of time and energy and resources it would be, about how people use those baggies for all kinds of things, and transport and keep drugs in a wide variety of vessels, etc. more ›

The latest weapon in Chicago's war on drugs may be banning the little plastic bags some drugs come in. No, really. Alderman Robert Fioretti wants to restrict the sale of "self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width." more ›

Surprise, surprise: Chicago will not be banning retail stores from distributing plastic bags anytime soon, but steps are being taken to institute a plastic bag recycling program. According to the Sun-Times, Alderman Ed Burke from the 14th Ward proposed a "San Francisco-style ban on non-compostable plastic bags" last May, but he was ultimately forced to compromise. Now, Burke is joining Economic Development Committee Chairman Marge Laurino from the 39th Ward in proposing a much softer ordinance that instead of banning bags creates bag recycling options. more ›

We were recently going through, what we like to call, the take-out drawer of shame and realized we multiple copies of almost every menu we could possibly order from. Not to mention the fact that rubber bands and tiny plastic bags line our hall. Well, on January 9th the License and Consumer Protection Agency considered changes by Alderman Flores, 1st, and Alderman Rugai, 19th, which would crack down on the companies and those they hire... more ›

to-the-stomach piece on Joe Francis, creator of the Girls Gone Wild empire. When a tipster sent us the link to the article this weekend, we hastily passed it over without even opening the link, thinking it was some fluff piece on foam parties and topless girls gyrating to 120 bpms. Once we sat down and gave the article our full attention, we were sickened beyond belief and plagued with a number of thoughts on the state of our society. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, though … more ›

Remember those 72 chihuahuas found in a Wheeling home last month? Well the Heartland Animal Shelter in in Northbrook that took them in is having trouble paying the bills. The shelter is spending $1500 a day to house the dogs, prepare their meals, and buy thousands of tiny plastic bags to pick up their poo. But the biggest cost for the shelter: their phone bill. An employee told NBC 5 that their phone and voicemail bill jumped to $1,200 after the deluge of calls from people interested in adopting the puppies. more ›

Walgreens and Dominick's are going to participate in a Chicago-wide initiative to make recycling more popular. The two retailers will begin using blue plastic bags instead of their brownish ones to encourage Chicagoans to use the blue-bag recycling program. We have a blue-bag recycling program? Sheesh. Chicagoist is definitely going to environmental hell. City officials hope that just having blue bags around will make garbage-producers more likely to recycle. Al Sanchez, commissioner of the... more ›