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Mayor Emanuel Backs Plan To End Free Garbage Pickup

By Jim Bochnowski in News on Jul 15, 2015 4:40PM

If you're one of the thousands of Chicagoans who live in large apartment buildings, you may see a slight fee increase in the coming year. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has thrown his support behind a plan to end free garbage pickup in multi-unit residential buildings.

In June, Ald. Matthew O'Shea proposed an ordinance to end the practice of providing free garbage pickup to over 1,800 apartment buildings which were "grandfathered" under a 2010 ordinance which required new residential buildings to pay for their own trash collection. O'Shea estimated that it would save the city at least $3.3 million a year and referred to the savings as "low-hanging fruit."

With the city in a fiscal bind and savings in high demand, the plan received an important endorsement when Emanuel threw his weight behind it on Tuesday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. In a statement, the mayor said it would save the city money:

"As we work to continue righting the city's fiscal ship, we must ensure that everyone plays by the same rules. I commend Ald. Austin, Ald. O'Shea and Inspector General Ferguson for offering cost-effective solutions that will not only save money but help the city operate in a more efficient manner."

Under the plan, all residential buildings with more than four units would be given 90 days to hire private garbage services. While this represents a small drop in the bucket as far as the city's larger budget issues, it is most likely the first in a series of additional fees that will be proposed by the mayor as he prepares his upcoming budget. As O'Shea told the Sun-Times:

"We're at that point where we have to be looking at everything. Things that, in the past, we haven't been comfortable with we need to look at. We're in a crisis. The numbers are daunting. It's not gonna get any easier."