Comments

I am so sorry about all the cities that are worse than Chicago. The recycling system has ways to go, as it is being clogged with toxic waste from plastic disposables. The army of janitors who only clean the visible areas of parks know better of how much plastic is left there that will never be recycled. Most businesses scoff at the idea of reducing packaging and do not even offer recycling. Even the emblematic Millennium Park's franchise sells junk food in big bulky unrecyclable plastic. Last summer the number of recycling bins next to waste bins in the parks was one every thirty feet, with special labeling, and opening areas to make it truly obvious as to what was being collected, yet people still threw garbage at the recycling bins and recyclables at the garbage bins. Events held in parks, both public and private distributed as much free trash plastic as possible. It looks like they use the excessive amount of bins to justify the waste. No wonder people think that recycling is a joke. I believe that as long as plastic disposables are allowed, companies will just be so happy to use more of it, and use more trucks to haul it away. Last summer it was held as a wonder that compressors are now used in beaches to pail all the trash before taking it away. The city is PROUD that beaches are now official part of the landfill system, and people have yet another reason to dump trash near a water body. During the past decade, I have not seen ANY campaign in Chicago to REDUCE waste. All the supposedly green efforts go to how to hide the waste of uneducated citizens, while keeping them uneducated and making them proud of the record number of waste bins and janitors available. This is a bad example, and I hope other cities consider how bad it works. Chicago is just a city of free waste, like a child that has a tantrum if it cannot have the latest disposable trash everybody nearby has.