WBEZ | garbage

List: Five items that instantly lose their value once they touch the sidewalk

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 08:45:00 -0500

Inspired by something I saw outside my house yesterday. . .

underwear

mattresses

pizza

synthetic hair*

balloons

*If you need some, though, there is a bunch of it on the corner of Kenmore and Berwyn.

America's addiction to trash

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:16:00 -0500

What's America's largest export? According to Edward Humes, the surprising answer is trash.

Humes writes about America's trash problem in his new book Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash. For Humes, wastefulness is one of the few big societal, economic and environmental problems over which ordinary individuals can exert control.

Tuesday on Worldview, Edward Humes discusses why the country is such a prolific producer of garbage.

Worldview 7.3.12

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:02:00 -0500

Tuesday on Worldview:

Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, also known as the PRI, has returned to power with the election of Enrique Peña Nieto, who won the country’s presidential election on Sunday. The PRI had dominated the country’s politics for more than 70 years but was swept out of government in 2000. Peña Nieto has promised a series of reforms but many Mexicans remain skeptical that the party has really transformed itself.

Worldview talks with John Ackerman, a law professor at the Institute for Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, about the election's implications. David Vidal, a member of the Mexican student movement YoSoy132, also joins the conversation. YoSoy was hoping to see a defeat of Pena Nieto.

Then, America’s largest export is trash. Edward Humes, author of Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash tells Worldview why the country is such a prolific producer of garbage.

Where does our garbage go?

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 09:01:00 -0500

In late May, the Illinois House approved a measure that would prevent any new landfills from opening, or any existing landfills from expanding, inside Cook County. The proposal has already been approved by the State Senate, and now it’s awaiting Gov. Quinn’s signature. We wondered why the state was worried about landfill legislation at this time.

It turns out there’s a tousle going on on the southeast side of Chicago. The dispute is between community groups, environmentalists, and some pols on one side, and a company called Land and Lakes and other pols on the other side. Ground zero is 138th and Cottage Grove. It’s actually the city of Dolton, and it’s where Land and Lakes operates a huge landfill. It’s a stone’s throw from the Altgeld Gardens housing projects, and just to the west of the Hegewisch neighborhood. Land and Lakes wants to expand to an 86 acre site that currently belongs to the city.

But back in 1984, the Chicago City Council put the kibosh on new or expanded landfills. In 2005, the City Council re-upped those same measures for an additional 20 years. So the company dangled some large numbers in front of Dolton’s board. Cash the village would supposedly receive if it were to annex the 86 acres from Chicago and allow Land and Lakes their expansion. The Tribune said the number quoted was $36 million over 25 years that Dolton would bring in thanks to the expansion. That’s a lot of dough for a village that could really use it. A Cook County judge has already ruled in favor of Land and Lakes. We’ll have to see what happens next as things work their way through the courts.

But the drama playing out down at the bend of the Little Calumet River got us thinking...most of us have no idea where our garbage goes. Yeah, a couple of guys in a really smelly truck come down our alleys-or our streets if you live in the suburbs-and then it’s gone. But how far does it travel? Where does it end up? How long does it take to get there? Can it just keep going to that same place forever? Even as humans expand our ability and desire to recycle, we continue to generate refuse. How will we think about its disposal in the future?

Wednesday on Afternoon Shift, we get some answers from David Lee. He’s a Ph.D. Candidate in Urban Studies and Planning, and a graduate researcher attached to the SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT. Back in 2009 the lab did a project called Trash Track, where tiny sensors were attached to all manner of people’s garbage. There's also some easy-to-understand but eye-opening charts that Derek Thompson recently posted in The Atlantic.

Trash problems in Chicago: Who you gonna call?

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:00:00 -0600

Chicago aldermen have long controlled a key city service: garbage pick-up. But not for long, says Mayor Rahm Emanuel. As part of our coverage this week of Emanuel's budget, we look at the politics of trash.

Right now, Chicago's garbage trucks are assigned to one of its 50 wards.

"No person designing a garbage collection system from scratch would base it on a political map," Emanuel told aldermen during his budget address in mid-October.

Emanuel wants to move to a grid system. Trucks would have straightforward routes instead of zig-zagging within squiggly ward boundaries. The administration said that'd save $20 million in the first year. Some aldermen have embraced the change, but not all.

"It's not about politics," said Ald. Roberto Maldonado of the West Side's 26th Ward, during an interview at his Humboldt Park office. "It is about efficiency, and making sure that my constituents will be reassured that they won't have any problems."

Maldonado said that, historically, "constituents hold accountable the alderman for the garbage collection."

So if he no longer controls trash pick-up, Maldonado wants residents to call "the mayor's office number" with trash complaints. But that already kind-of happens. It's 311, Chicago's non-emergency hotline. And from a quick survey in Maldonado's ward, people already do that.

"For things like that, you don't really need to call the aldermen," Robert Williams said. "You call 311."

"I just dial 311 since it's non-emergency and ask them to come pick up the garbage," said Ivan Rivera.

Shikita Carr said she calls the police to report garbage problems, and she claimed they respond. (Though maybe that's not the best advice.)

Still, those responses indicate residents already expect centralized services. Recycling - in areas where there is recycling - is picked up on a grid. And last year the city started "field testing" grid garbage pickup, though a Streets and Sanitation Department spokesman says there's no "hard data available" from the tests.

At a recent hearing, a handful of aldermen grumbled about Emanuel's plan and how few details have been released. The city is paying a consultant to chart out the grids using GIS mapping software. But those results aren't expected to be ready until after aldermen vote on the budget.

Emanuel considers a revamp of Chicago's garbage collection system

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:11:00 -0500

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Friday he might change the way the city collects garbage. According to Emanuel, Chicago spends too much on trash pick-up - more than $200 a ton - compared to cities like Los Angeles or Philadelphia.

Currently, the city collects trash using a ward-by-ward program, but Emanuel said the city could save $60 million by switching to a city-wide grid system.

"Can we do it better, cheaper, and more effective? And, this is one way to look at it. Now, if somebody has a better way to find $60 million in savings, the door is open, the suggestion box is open, bring it forward," he said.

The mayor he would not eliminate the ward superintendents, who deal with sanitation concerns in each ward. He called them "the most responsive element to a community," and said he would consider creating a new position to monitor the grid system

Emanuel reiterated his plan to revamp the city's recycling program as well, citing his desire for a "comprehensive policy" for trash collection.

"At every level of government, our city is stuck in decades' old policies we have not modernized for the 21st century," said Emanuel.