Materials Management Policy Priorities
A Summary of City Environmental Goals for 2021 and 2022
During our January 19 Chicago in Focus Program, Chicago Streets and Sanitation Deputy Commissioner Chris Sauve and Delta Institute CEO Bill Schleizer explained short-term goals:
Creating Waste-Hauling Zones
The first policy priority is “researching potential for implementing waste-hauling zones.” In other words, creating greater oversight of the private waste haulers that are operating all throughout Chicago. Sauve’s department handles the recycling for about 625,000 homes in the city, all of which are “low-density” buildings, meaning single-family homes or buildings with four units or less. All of the high-rises and larger multi-unit buildings in Chicago—including commercial property—are handled by private waste haulers.
Chicago has a “free market system.” Private waste haulers operate anywhere in the city with little oversight, because there is no regulating system that oversees where contractors can work. Creating more oversight of waste management was something the city looked at over a decade ago, when there was a Department of Environment. That department was disbanded under Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011.
Sauve suggested giving the city regulatory oversight, possibly by creating zones that only certain private waste haulers could operate in. This could create better transparency over who is doing what. “It’s absolutely something that would help and have a huge impact in terms of (de)creasing the amount of material going to landfill.”
Focusing on Manufacturers and Contractors
Another priority is to support statewide Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation. EPR holds manufacturers accountable for the processing and disposal of their product at the end-of-life, which lessens the burden on consumers, waste haulers and ultimately our environment.
A third priority is to assess compliance with the Construction and Demolition Debris (C&D) Recycling Ordinance and identify ways to better educate contractors. Related to this, a fourth priority is to revisit and revise the current C&D ordinance to encourage better reuse of materials that could prevent much of the C&D from going to the landfill.
Working with Communities
Suave next introduced four short-term ‘community priorities’—ways in which Chicago can better work directly with residents to reduce waste. Those include working with the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to pilot food waste prevention programs; crafting clear and consistent messaging for recycling through partnering with The Recycling Partnership; supporting composting projects like the seasonal “pumpkin smash” with SCARCE, which prevented twenty tons of pumpkins from going to a landfill; and working with a textile recycling company on a project to recycle old clothes, shoes and other textiles.
Cleaning Streets and Sanitation’s Own House
Finally, Sauve introduced three short-term ‘internal operations priorities’ for this year, which include analyzing blue cart to black cart distribution; improving high-density residential recycling ordinance compliance and improving Chicago’s yard waste collection program, including the possibility of incorporating food scraps for composting as a “ride along.”
There are positive developments for Chicago Streets & Sanitation going into 2022. Eight new positions will be added to the department and dedicated to implementing these goals. Sauve also mentioned the department received $6.5 million in capital funding to develop composting pilot programs as well as an additional $23 million to plant trees throughout the city.
There's a lot of work to be done, but there are also more people than ever engaging in that work. The LWV Chicago Environmental Action Committee thanks both Chris Sauve and Bill Schleizer for joining us for this great conversation and look forward to progress in 2022.