Hate to Say Goodbye, But Love Watching You Go

By Timmy Watson in News on Oct 22, 2006 8:13PM

Oh blue bags, how we will miss mocking your irrelevance in the world of recycling. After a successful test of the 96-gallon blue carts in the Beverly neighborhood, the city will be tilting the carts onto their back wheels and rolling them to 7 wards throughout the city.

The Chicago Center for Green Technology, which announced the pilot program, also indicated the city will open 15 drop-off locations for residents in other areas to take recyclables if they please. The number of drop-off spots is a little light; we are hoping they will increase this number as well. We also hope more recycling bins around trains and on the street are in the near future.

The Chicago Recycling Coalition issued a white paper in April of this year with a breakdown of costs associated with the blue bag program, and alternately they issued a breakdown of the costs of a proposed cart system. This, in combination with the Tribune report last year which criticized the city of pumping up the numbers participating in the blue bag program, most likely increased pressure on Mayor Daley and the city to improve the lackluster amount of recycling our city does. Of course, this is in addition to most people that live here hating it.

The program will be in the 19th, 1st, 5th, 8th, 37th, 46th and 47th Wards, and the transition should be complete for these Wards by August.

Image via Kitseeborg