City Hall to Expand, Outsource Recycling Program

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 18, 2011 7:10PM

Mayor Emanuel announced an expansion of the "blue cart" curbside recycling program, by privatizing four of the city's six service areas in a trial run and having private contractors compete with city services responsible for the other two areas to determine if the better option is keeping the program under city control or outsourcing it to private companies.

City Hall chose Waste Management and Midwest Metal Management. The two companies have placed bids for the program totaling $6.6 million, compared to the $13.8 million the city currently pays for the 240,000 homes receiving curbside recycling service. If they prove to be more efficient collectors of recyclers than city employees, privatizing the entire blue cart program could save the city $6.2 million.

The trial rollout, starting in September, will expand curbside recycling to 20,000 homes in Wicker Park, Logan Square and Bucktown. If Waste Management and Midwest Metal Management prove to do an efficient job with recycling, then they'll take over the entire program, with Laborers and Teamsters moving over to jobs collecting garbage.

Announcing the trial this morning, Emanuel said, "When it’s comes to recycling, Chicago has been a tale of two cities. Half the city has had recycling. Half has not had recycling. I want to change that. But, to do that, we have to be price-competitive. My job is to make sure that we’re delivering services to the entire city — not parts of the city — and do it in the most cost-effective way for city taxpayers."

The move comes as City Hall and labor unions are already feeling each other out over Emanuel's proposed work-rule changes and his sending out layoff notices to 625 unionized city workers. The mayor didn't seemed fazed.

"I have an obligation to the city taxpayers — not to the city payroll," he said.