Recent news on recycling in Chicago.

Emanuel: Rest of city will get curbside recycling by end of 2013

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today said the remaining 340,000 Chicago households that don’t have curbside recycling will get it by the end of 2013.

WTTW "Chicago Tonight" - Recycling in Chicago

When it comes to picking up residential recycling in Chicago, private companies do it cheaper. But numbers show that city crews are closing the gap. Paris Schutz has the story.

Public, private sectors to vie for $25M city recycling contract

With thousands of blue recycling carts still stashed away in a Far South Side warehouse, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration has awarded a $25 million contract to purchase even more containers.

City Hall to Expand, Outsource Recycling Program

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 to privatize recycling; deliver curb-side service to households

Under fire to deliver suburban-style curbside recycling to 359,000 Chicago households without it, the Daley administration has decided to privatize the service by signing a 10-year contract with Waste Management, a union leader has been told.

It Isn’t Easy Voting Green

Pro-environment talk is cheap. Which mayoral candidates will back it up? Favoring a greener environment is like favoring school reform: it's a lot easier to say you're for it than to bring it about.

Service Couldn’t Be Better, and at $200 a Ton It Should Be

This top-shelf service, however, comes at a hefty price. Chicago taxpayers pay considerably more to collect and get rid of their waste than almost any other big city, an analysis by the Chicago News Cooperative has found. The 2011 budget for Chicago’s Bureau of Sanitation, the division of the Department of Streets and Sanitation responsible for picking up and disposing of trash and recyclables, is about $141 million. The city expects to collect about 975,000 tons of garbage and recyclables this year, which is about $145 a ton. By contrast, Los Angeles and Houston, the cities closest in size to Chicago, spend $133 and $94 a ton, respectively.

Laborers Union proposes $10 recycling fee

Laborers Union Local 1001 is lobbying Chicago aldermen to impose a $10 monthly fee for recycling pickups to raise $72 million -- enough to bankroll the citywide switch to curbside recycling.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Environmental Legacy

Now that Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has announced he will retire in May after 22 years in office, this is a good time to take stock of Chicago’s environmental accomplishments and shortcomings during his long tenure.

Why Can't Chicago Recycle?

A world-class city, a "green" mayor—what's the problem? Insiders say the city's budget woes are only part of the story.

Is Chicago throwing away $1 million on recycling carts?

Thousands of blue recycling carts -- with a pricetag of nearly $1 million -- are stashed away in a Far South Side warehouse because City Hall bought them to make the citywide switch to curbside recycling, but ran out of money one-third of the way through.

RFID Tags on Recycle Bins Help Laurel, Md., Track Participation in Recycling Mandate

Public works officials in Laurel, Md., don't like wasting money -- especially not on dumping trash that could have been recycled. That's why the city made recycling a requirement for city residents living in single-family homes and townhouses, and encourages it at apartment complexes. That's also why its public works department recently installed radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on recycle bins to track recycling habits.

City may wash hands of curbside recycling

Under fire to deliver suburban-style curbside recycling to all Chicagoans, the Daley administration is exploring the possibility of privatizing the service, City Hall sources said Tuesday. Several aldermen, who asked to remain anonymous, said they've been told Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne is working on a plan to privatize recycling to shave as much as $40 million off the $60 million annual cost.

Aldermen vent on stalled recycling program but don't reach agreement

Chicago aldermen frustrated with the stalled expansion of blue-cart recycling vented today about being left out but offered few options for coming up with the cash to pay for the program. Ald. Thomas Allen, 38th, introduced a measure calling for recycling to be extended to houses in all 50 wards. City Hall has rolled out the popular blue-cart program in all or part of 29 wards, but expansion is stalled for lack of money.

How far will YOU go to recycle?

When Mike Condei's 30-gallon bin gets full of recyclables every week, he lugs it out of the basement in his Pullman home, packs it in his car and schleps the materials to a city drop-off center--one more than a dozen miles away.