(Gary Spears / Pexels)

Live and natural holiday trees can be dropped off in a tree recycling corral at one of 27 designated locations in the city from Jan. 6-20.

Law enforcement members of New York Sheriff's Joint Compliance Task Force (SJCTF) carry bags of confiscated vaping products, during a spot raid of a tobacco shop, Wednesday Sept. 27, 2023, in New York. (Bebeto Matthews / AP Photo)

The recent shift toward e-cigarettes that can’t be refilled has created a new environmental dilemma. The devices, which contain nicotine, lithium and other metals, cannot be reused or recycled. Under federal environmental law, they also aren’t supposed to go in the trash.

Chicagoans can bring their food waste to one of 15 locations across the city and dispose of it in a green bin, officials said. (Credit: City of Chicago)
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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.

(WTTW News)

It starts with an assembly line of sorts: washing and drying detergent bottles that have been collected from different laundromats. The plastic is then shredded into small granules, heated and made into a solid beam to create benches.

Metal scrap. (Public Domain Pictures / Pixabay)
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The failure likely sent hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete, wood, brick, metal and glass into landfills that could have been reused or recycled, according to the audit by the city’s watchdog.

(mali maeder / pexels)

A coalition of attorneys general said the Federal Trade Commission needs to strengthen the process for “ensuring consumers are protected from companies providing overinflated or even false claims about their products’ environmental benefits.”

People dump everything, including the kitchen sink, in Cook County's forest preserves. (Courtesy of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County)

The CHARM Center, as it’s been dubbed, will open Saturday in South Holland. The free, permanent recycling hub will accept items including electronics, textiles and Styrofoam, many of which are reusable.

(Lisa Fotios / Pexels)

Live trees — well, not so live anymore — can be recycled at any one of 26 citywide locations, Jan. 7-21.

Food scraps can be composted into nutrients for soil. (herb007 / Pixabay)

Six community gardens will test the logistics of a compost program that could be expanded if it proves successful and scaleable.

(WTTW News)

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. 

(WTTW News)

Chicago bills itself as a world-class city, but when it comes to recycling, its performance has been less than first-rate. 

(Roberto Sorin / Unsplash)

Along with accepting items for donation, experts will be on hand to share tips not only about recycling but re-using, re-purposing and reducing consumption.

Toys don't belong in Chicago blue recycling carts. That doesn't mean landfill is the only option. (Zoltan Matuska / Pixabay)

The monthly Sustainability Market provides a one-stop drop-off point for items that range from crayons to wet suits. 

(Half Acre Beer / Facebook)

Sturdy plastic snap-on can carriers are labeled as 100% recyclable. Which is true, just not when it comes to the single-stream recycling programs favored by cities like Chicago.

EcoShip's Peter Proctor and Alexsandra Plewa, prepping an order of recycled shipping materials for a customer. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

Aleksandra Plewa and Peter Proctor's startup, EcoShip, collects used shipping materials and redistributes them to small business owners – for free. 

(WTTW News)
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Illinois state legislators are considering a proposal that would help facilitate carpet recycling, but the effort has what one might call wall-to-wall complications.