Wednesday, October 17, 2007
News / Clout City Blue in Green
Posted by Mick Dumke on Wed, Oct 17, 2007 at 3:30 PM
In his budget address last week, Mayor Daley proposed expanding the city's Blue Cart recycling pilot program to 131,000 more households by the end of 2008. That would mean that about 211,000 households served by city sanitation crews, or 30 percent of the citywide total, would have source-separated recycling a year from now.
Most experts say that this kind of recycling, in which materials are sorted out of the trash before it's collected, is far more effective and results in far higher participation than postcollection recycling, the approach taken in the city's Blue Bag program. Wards that don't have Blue Cart recycling are still supposed to be Blue Bagging their recyclables.
The Chicago Recycling Coalition and other advocates praise the Blue Cart program but wonder why it's taking so long to expand it citywide. "We don't need more pilots--we know what works. Now we need to roll it out everywhere," said Julie Dick, a member of the coalition's board of directors. "The more they roll it out on a citywide basis, the easier it is to educate people on how to recycle. Because right now that's part of the problem--dealing with the confusion of how people can recycle in which part of the city."
The city has said it doesn't have the money right now to take Blue Cart recycling to all 50 wards. State grants covered some of the costs of introducing source-separated recycling into the seven wards that now have it, including the price of buying the blue recycling bins themselves.
Experts say that though launching first-rate recycling programs typically costs municipalities up front, as they have to invest in new equipment and some additional personnel, they should save in the long run as fewer people are needed to pick up garbage and landfill costs decline.
But budget documents show that confusion and lower-than-necessary recycling rates might not be the only problems created by the city's slow-rollout introduction of source-separated recycling. It may also be costing taxpayers too much.
Before 2007 the city didn't have separate budget lines for recycling. Since Blue Bags were picked up with the rest of the trash, the cost of pulling them out at city sorting facilities was simply bundled in with the rest of the waste disposal budget. Critics charged that the Blue Bag program was a waste of taxpayer money, but the truth is that it was almost impossible to determine what the city was spending on recycling alone.
Now, though, the budget for the Department of Streets and Sanitation includes a section for recycling, and if the mayor gets his way, it's going to grow rapidly. In 2007 the city spent about $2.8 million on 46 recycling jobs. Daley's proposing a 2008 recycling budget of $7.9 million to cover 111 jobs--increases of 180 percent and 140 percent, respectively. That's roughly proportional with the increase in households covered under the program. Among the new positions will be two assistant general superintendents and four assistant division superintendents.
At the same time, however, the city is planning to spend about the same amount on waste collection personnel, going from $44.4 million on 692 jobs in 2007 to $45.4 million on 688 jobs in 2008.
The city is also budgeting $52.3 million to cover the costs of hauling and landfilling garbage, less than the $54.2 million it estimates it will spend in 2007. But this year, as it has the last several years, spending on waste disposal has exceeded the budgeted amount by several million dollars. The city allotted $49.9 million, but will wind up spending about $4.3 million more.
The point here isn't that anything out of line is necessarily happening--not yet, at least. But the longer the Daley administration continues to spend money on the ineffective Blue Bag program while also attempting to invest in the Blue Cart approach, the less likely it is that taxpayers are getting cost-effective recycling or garbage disposal services. Savings, like higher recycling rates, can only going to be realized with a full-on commitment.
Then again, it's possible Chicago will never see these anticipated financial benefits. Given the Daley administration's record on hiring and contracting, effective recycling services might provide City Hall with the chance to go green and reward political supporters at the same time.
My call to Streets and Sanitation wasn't returned this afternoon, but the department's top brass is scheduled to testify in City Council budget hearings Thursday, Oct. 25.
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If they are saying that some people are not educated enough to use a blue bin, why don't they send out a couple of flyers, or do some work at community meetings to let people know what the color difference is? Street and Sanitation, an INEPT, over paid, over managed, supervisor laden department that will never change...
What about those citizens who are color-blind? You'd think that there would be a suitable garbage bin with a distinctive shape, different than the general garbage bins, maybe with symbols or images on it.
I used to be in the 1st Ward, one of the Wards that is in the pilot program. The Blue Carts have labels on the lids showing everything that can be put in them. Streets and Sanitation also dropped off flyers at all of the houses that were getting carts explaining the program. Alderman Flores also had community meetings on the program as well.
The blue bag scam is back again. How much money are the citizen of chicago, donate to the fred Barbara poverty fund. Check _-------__chicagoclout.com THERE IS A PICTURE OF DALEY BEING TAKEN TO JAIL.
Thanks for the plug. www.chicagoclout.com has some great photos we are going to release soon. We are in the process of making the photos copyrighted as many of my photos have been used with no credit. Keep up the Great Work Mick, I see you are carrying a lot of dead weight lately.
I noticed a city recycling facility is run by a private contractor and workers are being paid less than $7 per hour. The facility is located on Kostner /chicago . please check this out Mick
I know of a city department more top heavy than streets and santitation. THE CITY BUILDING DEPARTMENT is top heavy with a large number of clout heavy operatives
Let's face it - the Blue Bag program was never about recycling. It was about figuring out a way to insure that mayoral crony and alleged Mob figure Fred Barbara got a lucrative contract. If a few things got recycled, fine, and if not, that was fine too. I can honestly say that every single blue bag I've seen in a dumpster at my building has been one that I've put there, and I live in the 47th Ward, which supposedly has the highest Blue Bag participation rate in the City. If City money - to the tune of $40 million a pop - is available to subsidize corporate relocations within the Loop (and it is available), then there's enough for Blue carts. Richie's just hopeless - if he had to organize a two car funeral, it would cost $400,000, and the dead guy wouldn't get buried for three years
For raising another question about recycling, as in, will people in the slums of Pilsen, Marquette Park, Garfield Park, Grand Crossing, Chicago Lawn, Little Village and Humboldt Park actually recycle? It's an honest-to-god question. Where people are loitering, many are litering. It seems like a waste of money to even attempt to get them to recycle when they don't even throw their garbage in cans. Like I said, not everyone is Beverly or Sauganash, Wicker Park or Lincoln Park.
Well, one good thing about this blue cart system will be that it will enable our city's small army of street recycling entrepreneurs to more safely access those materials that they regularly seek, without having to dig through general, and potentially dangerous, waste. A more efficient process will assist those of meager means to survive. Hopefully, the authorities will not be actively harassing these hard-working, independent souls. If anything, blue carts should be given to any who are willing to do the labor-intensive tasks of collecting salable recyclables and hauling them to the centers that purchase same.
blue carts, blue bags,rain blockers,nothing but our tax payer $$$$$$$$wasted if not lining daleys pockets as well as the aldermans do we get to vote raises for ourselves as they do. i think not nothing as far as infrastructure,homeless,crime,etc has improved lets wake up folks look around at whats goin on ,and please don't get me go'in on bush and cheney no dif between them and hitler
jan pestka got moved around than fired)after exposing the honor-guard security fraud and exposing the fraud with coconate. what say thee coconateeee?
Simple. Effective. Easy. S.E.E.? HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT Just do it.
I'd like you to check-out my trilogy... and maybe buy one of my novels. Those should explain everything: --> stores.lulu.com/fido <-- If we don’t hook up here, I'll see you in God’s Great Beyond, won't I? God bless. Love you. theautomann@msn.com tok2me
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