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. 

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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.

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Chicago’s Christmas tree recycling event kicks off Saturday and runs through Jan. 22 at 26 parks. The program keeps hundreds of thousands of pounds of trees out of landfills.

(Freestocks / Unsplash)

Did you know wrapping paper isn’t recyclable in Chicago? Read on for more tips on how to deal with post-holiday waste.

(Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

A group of North Side alderpeople and community organizations are teaming up to recycle non-working holiday lights, which, it should be emphasized, cannot and should not be placed in regular recycling bins.

(Photo by Sigmund / Unsplash)

The plastics industry is expected to be putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than coal by the end of this decade according to a recent report by Beyond Plastic, an environmental advocacy group.

(Mali Maeder / Pexels)

On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency released its first National Recycling Strategy, which aims for a 50% recycling rate in the U.S. by 2030. 

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Plans are underway to keep organic waste out of Chicago's landfills, officials said.

Nurdles found washed up on the beach at Dawlish Warren in Devon, England. (Partonez / Wikimedia Commons)

Each year, 22 million pounds of plastic finds its way into the Great Lakes – the source of potable water for more than 30 million Americans. We take a look at what can be done to limit plastic pollution.

This image from video shows the Tokyo Olympics medals. The Games kick off Friday, July 23 and run through Aug. 8. (Credit: Tokyo Olympics)

Some of the Games’ most high-profile moments will incorporate clever examples of “reduce, reuse, recycle,” like medalists standing on 3-D printed podiums made from recycled plastic collected by the Japanese people. 

Chicago’s black and blue carts have been the city’s waste management workhorses. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

Chicago generates more than 4 million tons of material waste annually. A new, highly anticipated report recommends a number of strategies aimed at keeping more of that trash out of landfills.

Mount Recyclemore G-7 leaders: Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Yoshihide Suga of Japan, Emmanuel Macron of France, Mario Draghi of Italy, Justin Trudeau of Canada, Angela Merkel of Germany and Joe Biden of the U.S. (Courtesy of musicMagpie)

The towering sculpture, constructed near the site of this weekend’s G-7 summit, sounds the alarm about the growing problem of electronic waste.

(WTTW News)

The Department of Streets and Sanitation is turning a page on its beleaguered Blue Cart recycling program, issuing the first new collection contract in nearly a decade. Recycling advocates are cautiously optimistic about the change.

Unlike plastic, corrugated cardboard is highly recyclable. The Fibre Box Association says the industry’s recovery rate hovers around 90%. (WTTW News)

The pandemic has led to a surge in demand for all kinds of shipping materials — especially corrugated boxes, commonly used for e-commerce items and many other goods. We explore how the “box boom” is being felt across the region.

(WTTW News)

Less than 9% of the trash produced every year by Chicago residents is kept out of landfills — a rate that has not budged for four years. 

Urban Growers Collective maintains a herd of 17 goats at its South Chicago farm. (Courtesy of Urban Growers Collective)

Where humans see a messy pile of dried needles, goats see a tasty meal. The herd at Urban Growers Collective’s South Chicago farm can dine for weeks on recycled Christmas trees.