This weekend, nearly 80 sites across the greater Chicago region will be collecting pumpkins for composting, part of a nationwide push to keep food waste out of landfills.
Composting
Less than 9% of the trash produced every year by Chicago residents is kept out of landfills — a rate that has been essentially unchanged for five years, despite repeated calls for the city to do a better job at recycling.
Six community gardens will test the logistics of a compost program that could be expanded if it proves successful and scaleable.
To keep jack-o'-lanterns from clogging landfills, dozens of pumpkin smash events will take place Saturday. Pumpkins will be collected and composted instead of trashed.
Chicago has long had a tortured relationship with recycling. City leaders have scrapped old programs and replaced them with new ones, but the result is the same recycling rates in the single digits.
Chicago bills itself as a world-class city, but when it comes to recycling, its performance has been less than first-rate.
The University of Illinois Extension in Cook County is teaming up with the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance and Plant Chicago on a pair of compost collection events in Chicago on Saturday.
The annual Pumpkin Smash event encourages people to compost their gourds instead of trashing them. Dozens of sites across the Chicago region will be collecting jack-o’-lanterns and gourds on Nov. 6.
Plans are underway to keep organic waste out of Chicago's landfills, officials said.
First Home Pickup Service for Food Scraps Comes to Chicago
Jay Shefsky tells us about companies that pick up food scraps from restaurants and now from your home -- and turn them into compost. And, he takes us to an urban farm that uses that compost to grow vegetables -- and jobs.
