Starting Jan. 9, you can drop off your tree for recycling at one of two dozen Chicago parks. Here’s everything you need to know.
department of streets and sanitation


Leaves don’t belong in the streets, or in dumpsters. Call 311 for a yard waste pickup after you’ve raked and bagged your leaves.

Damage to Chicago’s trees during the powerful Aug. 10 derecho was even more extensive than previously thought.

City crews are still clearing debris from last week’s powerful derecho. Thousands of trees were lost, which has renewed the call by some for an Urban Forestry Advisory Board to manage Chicago’s green infrastructure.

An audit by the Inspector General’s Office found numerous flaws in the Department of Streets and Sanitation’s system of clearing weeds from vacant lots, including the lack of an up-to-date list of city-owned vacant property.

Chicago residents who don’t have a city sticker will get another two weeks before they risk seeing that dreaded bright orange envelope on their windshields.

Car owners have been getting a pass in 2020 when it comes to ignoring street sweeping signs, but that ends Wednesday.

Residents aren’t supposed to be ticketed for cars parked along street sweeping routes during Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, but some have. Those tickets were issued in error, according to the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation.

After weeks of delay, Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation will begin its street sweeping season on May 18. But residents won’t get tickets for cars parked along cleaning routes as long as the stay-at-home order remains in effect.

Street sweeping season usually kicks off April 1, but with so many Chicagoans (and their cars) staying put, the city decided to improvise.