1. Plastic bottles from the
kitchen, laundry room and bathroom are recyclable true or false?
2. Recycle plastics based
on the number on the label - true or false?
3. Metal cans are
recyclable - true or false?
4. Which of these scrap
metals is recyclable in the blue cart - tanks, pipes, hangers, or none of them?
5. Shredded paper is
recyclable in the blue cart true or false?
6. Benefits of recycling are environmental, financial or both?
7. Old garden hoses go in which cart - blue cart or garbage cart?
8. Don’t bag your
recyclables - true or false?
9. Free yard waste pickup is available all year round by calling 311 - true or false?
10. Three of these are
recyclable in the blue cart, which is not - cardboard, glass jars, plastic wrap or cartons?
11. A bottle with water in it
is ready for recycling - true or false?
12. Polystyrene (aka: PS
#6 or styrofoam) is not recyclable in the blue cart true or false? Answers on page 12.
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The Blue Cart system isn’t the end-all for recycling in Chicago - there are more resources that are often overlooked. For example, there are safe ways to dispose of leftover items, like dropping off rechargeable batteries at Staples or Lowe's. Also, there are a wide variety of ways that textiles can be recycled. Old clothes, torn rags, even ratty underwear - all of it can be recycled instead of being sent to a landfill. According to Ecowatch and Earth 911, the fashion industry is the second dirtiest industry in the world, second only to big oil. The scale of the issue is immense - 150 million tons of clothing is sold worldwide every year, the majority of which ends up in landfills. The Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) reports that nearly 85 percent of textile waste ends up being tossed in the trash. This is another example of huge amounts of materials ending up in landfills that shouldn't. There are many organizations that are working to combat this by hosting textile recycling centers. The NERC explains the material recycling process very clearly. For example, when clothes are recycled to a charity or a for-profit textile collection business, the first thing they do is sort through the items and grade them. The best clothing items, shoes, washcloths, etc. are typically resold through thrift shops in the US. Clothing that is wearable - but might be missing a few buttons or have some other minor flaws - is typically sold in bulk and winds up being used in overseas markets. Then, the unwearable items, like rags, towels, used underwear and so on are further separated. Some items are cut up and resold to industrial markets as wiping rags. Other material is sold off to be shredded and used to make insulation, stuffing for cushions and stuffed animals, carpet padding, soundproofing pieces in the automotive industry and other similar objects. In addition, these materials can have many secondary uses - in fact, many products used today were once old clothes or shoes. They can be used to make sports fields and athletic tracks, pillow stuffing, softball and baseball filling, paper money, home insulation, and fuel bricks. Using the products in these secondary items saves material from landfills. Textile recycling happens in a variety of ways in Chicago. There is Chicago Textile Recycling (CTR), which diverts over two and a half million pounds of waste from area landfills annually. People can clean their products and place them in the CTR bins around the city. Simple Recycling is a similar organization and that has pick-up options for textile
A CTR collection bin in Mundelein Park.
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE! TAKE A RECYCLING QUIZ
recycling, just like the normal garbage that gets picked up once a week. Those services are in Skokie, Schaumberg, Hanover Park and more. Additionally, Donate Stuff is a business that serves the Chicago area by collecting items that need to be donated and taking them to their respective charities. They pick up donations of things like clothing, curtains, towels, toys, appliances, office chairs, musical instruments, coffee makers and so much more. Donate Stuff makes sure these items get to a place where they can be used, instead of to a landfill. Along those lines, Blue Jeans Go Green has partnered with a multitude of stores to set up drop-off sites for jeans to be donated. These include Garage, Levi’s, Madewell, Wrangler and more. In addition, many of these businesses incentivize the recycling. For example, a customer can drop off their denim at a Garage location and get $10 off a pair of fullprice Garage jeans; or, they could receive 20 percent off a single item for bringing denim in for recycling at a Levi’s. Many other stores like these have found ways to incentivize recycling and prevent reusable objects from being placed in landfills. These objects, like jeans, are perfectly reusable, or at least can be broken down and remade into other products to be used. However, many people aren’t aware of all the possibilities and resources. There’s a range of recycling opportunities throughout Chicago, and education about those opportunities is imperative to increase the low recycling rates.
