I’ve never really understood why so many people p*** and moan about the city’s system of blue recycling bags (corruption allegations aside). What’s so damn hard about keeping a couple of bags under the sink to dispose of bottles and newspapers? When Yo’s truly lived in Sydney and San Francisco I saw residents actually confront people who were throwing recyclables out with the regular trash. Enviro meanies were generally relegated to a social status that was about on par with a Dateline NBC computer sex predator. Anyhoo, it appears that Chieftain Group is installing recycling chutes on every floor of its South Loop high-rise, Lexington Park Condominiums. So props to Chieftain.
Hopefully residents will get into the habit of using the chutes. How common are recycling chutes in Chicago residential buildings? Does anyone else live in a building with one? They ought to be mandatory in new construction. And Dateline should take its cameras into random buildings and shame people they catch mixing their wine bottles and their RedEyes with their non-recyclables.
I have a feeling that my high-rise just tosses all the recycling stuff in with the rest of the trash as soon as it’s out of our sights… But that’s another story altogether.
I’ve never heard of a recycling chute in a high-rise, but I think it’s a great idea. Well, sort of… It doesn’t seem like a great idea to be throwing a glass bottle down 30 floors, whether it lands in a dedicated bucket or not.
Good point. I wonder how it does work with the glass bottles? That reminds me of a story our home inspector columnist Tom Corbett told me about a guy whose condo was located right next to the point where the building’s garbage chute executed a 45 degree turn. The resulting noise drove the guy crazy.
Chicago needs to toughen up if it wants to be taken seriously as a leader in green, eco-friendly policies. They need to start charging fines to residential buildings/businesses that put recyclables into regular trash bins. They do that here in my building in NYC, and nobody complains.
The problem I have encountered in all but one of my eight Chicago rentals is that is that recycling is not even an option. I have a dumpster behind my building, and that is where my trash must go. It doesn’t matter if there are blue bags mixed in or not; it’s all going to the dump. If I want to recycle, I have to take my goods to the recycling center – a feat which is nearly impossible with no car. I doubt my fellow CTA riders want me to hop on the bus with three trashbags of, um, trash. But I would utilize the blue bags in a heartbeat if I could.
Sounds like Sydney and SF have some enviro-nazis.
I wouldn’t call them enviro nazis, although it’s unfortunate that their methods sometimes alienate rather than educate people. But at least they’re being considerate of the environment.
Alison I can relate to your experience. I was 16 and was driving north out of Sydney with some people I met to go surfing. I threw a candy wrapper out the window of this kid’s VW. This burned out looking surfer dude flipped his lid. He turned the bus around and made me go pick it up out of the weeds. The rest of the drive I got a lecture on how this isn’t the states and we don’t do stuff like that yadayadsdada…
Needless to say almost 20 years later and I have never thrown anything out my car window ever again.
Real / original nazis were non-smoking vegetarians who worshipped the natural environment. Curious, no?
FYI if you have a dumpster behind your building it means that the city doesn’t pick up your trash, but a private scavanger service. They may or may not recycle, but there are no blue bags there (despite this a neighbor believed when the garbage man told her that they seperated the blue bags later….).
I used to have a neighbor who would put his beer cans in a blue bag then hang the bag on the side of the dumpster, as if it would make any kind of difference.
Real nazis also committed genocide. It just so happens that Hitler loved animals. This doesn’t mean everyone who is anti-fur is ready to start up a concentration camp.
Joe the way you throw the term Nazi around would not please your Lithuanian grandmother. Trust me, I’m an expert on Lithuanian grandmothers
P.S. my last comment may have come off looking harsh, meant it in a light hearted way. No disrespect 🙂
There’s a pretty stark difference, I think, between using the term “nazi” in its hyphenated form, as in enviro-nazi and using it as a free-standing term.
I’d agree that it’s unacceptable to call anyone but a Nazi a Nazi. Dick Durbin, are you listening?
Did I say anything about fur? And how many of the objectors here laughed at Jerry Seinfeld and the soup nazi? Lighten up, folks.
And, for the record, my Lithuanian grandma didn’t speak a word of English.
NSH,
I’m from New Jersey – it takes a lot more than anything you’ve ever said here to come out as harsh in my way of hearing it.