Chicago Recycling

[rparz]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

What are you on? Who said anything about calling the police?

This is a website to help people who are relocating (or considering relocating) to Chicago.

And suddenly here is Mr. Bay Area flapping his gums and giving factually incorrect information which makes Chicago look like a town of morons.

I think its moronic to have someone tell me that there are people in Chicago who rule their alleys with an iron fist.

I think it's more true to tell someone that is from out of town that the alleys are pretty much a free-for-all.

The police aren't patrolling the alleys and most people have jobs and are gone most of the day.

Worse, you then are telling someone to break the law and to dump their trash or recycling in a privately-maintained bin.

Short of someone dumping tires or toxic waste in a dumpster, I honestly doubt anyone is going to care.
Illegal or not, what are you going to do, call 911?

And here, laugh yourself to death:

City of Chicago :: Volunteer As a Recycling Block Captain

It's really not that complicated.

Want to come and volunteer to clean up my block? It could use some attention.

We see scavengers all the time, it takes somewhere between 15 - 30 minutes for anything with a shred of metal to disappear. Tell us more about what lovely neighborhood you hail from, where the bums apparently run rampant, causing mayhem and making recycling impossible.

I'm not saying recycling is impossible. I said there's people throwing garbage all over my alleys, and to hear someone get upset over someone throwing some boxes in a dumpster is amazing and amusing to me.
Most of the time, they'll just throw garbage right in my yard, putting it in a proper receptacle would be a great plus!
To hear there's a place that everyone follows trash rules and people get upset about garbage being thrown in dumpsters sounds like something that only happens in the suburbs.

[Vlajos]

I used to live near someone who would berate dog owners for putting poop in a bag in his garbage can.

[rparz]

I know of my one neighbor who was out looking for a guy who let his dog poop in his yard without picking it up, but to yell about putting poop in a bag -- then in the can? Really?

I wouldn't be surprised if that guy found (mysterious and unclaimed) poop outside his doorstep. Can't watch your house 24/7, especially after you P.O. the neighbors.

Seriously, there's reasonable things and unreasonable things to ask people in the city to do.
Use my garbage cans all you want, I know the alternative is much, much worse.

My cans are constantly overfilled because the way the block is configured the ones by my house are closer to my neighbors doors. But to get mad about them using them? As long as it's IN THE CAN, it's not that big of a deal for me to walk 50 feet to the next can.

Is it really a fight worth having? It's not like the can is next to a window where he has to smell it all day.
If it is, shame on you for keeping your cans there. News flash, garbage cans stink.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by rparz

I know of my one neighbor who was out looking for a guy who let his dog poop in his yard without picking it up, but to yell about putting poop in a bag -- then in the can? Really?

I wouldn't be surprised if that guy found (mysterious and unclaimed) poop outside his doorstep. Can't watch your house 24/7, especially after you P.O. the neighbors.

Seriously, there's reasonable things and unreasonable things to ask people in the city to do.
Use my garbage cans all you want, I know the alternative is much, much worse.

My cans are constantly overfilled because the way the block is configured the ones by my house are closer to my neighbors doors. But to get mad about them using them? As long as it's IN THE CAN, it's not that big of a deal for me to walk 50 feet to the next can.

Is it really a fight worth having? It's not like the can is next to a window where he has to smell it all day.
If it is, shame on you for keeping your cans there. News flash, garbage cans stink.

I tend to agree.

[Drover]

There's such a thing as a "recycling block captain?" Do they get to wear a sash with a recycling logo on it or something?

Originally Posted by Vlajos

I used to live near someone who would berate dog owners for putting poop in a bag in his garbage can.

I had that happen to me on occasion when I was a dog walker. This always mystified me; here I thought I was doing my civic duty by cleaning up after the critters. When I asked what the hell difference it makes to them, the answer I usually got was that it made their trash cans smell -- is if they filled the air with an essence of fresh lilacs before I came along and ruined their aromatic fragrance with a re-used, tied-up Jewel bag of Fido doots.

[rparz]

I've filled up those recycling bins with beer cans (lots of beer cans) and in the summer heat those things start getting fragrant.
Last year I had a pressure washer and spent 45 minutes blowing all the crap out of them trying to clean them up.

Once they dried up and it stated getting hot again -- they still stunk.

If someone gave me some static about throwing a baggie of dog poop in their bin I'd give them the one finger salute and tell them if they don't like it to move to the suburbs where their lawns and garbage cans are off limits to the neighbors.



I was just in town two weeks ago and my buddy's truck wouldn't start. I pull my battery charger/starter out, a bunch of extension cords and some basic hand tools and head over there to give him a hand.
So, to assess the situation I tell him to pop the hood to take a look see if anything obvious sticks out as a problem.
Well, there was. Like a huge hole where a battery would fit -- if he had one.
In a seemingly nice neighborhood in the city someone came along and stole the damn battery right out from under the hood.
Easy enough fix, but $110 later truck ran fine.

Point is, these are the types of problems you run into living in the city.
After dealing with **** like that, who care about other people using your garbage bins?

[Chi-town Native]

let's try this again:

putting dog poop in a trash bin where it belongs is just common sense and being neighborly. I'm not a trash nazi, nor do I lock my bins up.

putting large amounts of recycling/trash (ie, not a stray pop can here or there) into someone else's privately-rented bin is illegal.

and lost in all of this was rparz' initial dismissal of how recycling functions, period. your opinions on recycling/trash, etc. would carry more weight IMO if you knew how the system actually works.

finally, often times the opposite is happening, and people who should be recycling through their 5+ unit buildings are instead using blue carts. that is costing you and me and all property owners money, as recycling is cheaper than straight waste hauling, but it still isn't free.

as for the "OMG - what is a recycling block captain?!" it's just people like me who volunteer to help educate their neighbors on how single-stream recycling works and why you should care (environmental reasons, and it does save us money).