When it comes to recycling, Chicago and Cook County have a long way to go
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A CBS News investigation recently uncovered that while Starbucks advertises its recycling practices to customers, many of its plastic cups end up in landfills or incinerators after being placed in recycling bins.
Why does so much of what gets tossed into those blue recycling bins end up in the trash? CBS News Chicago visited the city's largest recycling facility for some answers.
The LRS Chicago's Exchange Material Recovery Facility, at 4121 S. Packers Ave. in the Stockyards Industrial District, processes 25 tons of recycled materials an hour. Refuse ends up at the material recovery center after trucks haul it off from homes, schools, and offices.
At the facility, all the refuse brought in for recycling is evaluated, processed, and sorted—some of it by hand, some by robot. The sorting process is conducted at least three times, depending on the material.
"We want to make sure it's clean before we bale it and ship it off to the mill," said Mark Molitor of LRS.
Ultimately, the refuse is all packed, bundled, and stacked.
"At the end of the sorting processes, we say, 'Hey, paper mill, buy your paper from us instead of cutting down trees,' or, 'Hey, metal refinery, get your aluminum from us instead of mining,' said LRS sustainability manager Joy Rifkin.
Everything processed at the LRS facility stays in North America. The graphic below from the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation breaks down where materials are sent to be processed.
If something recyclable is just thrown something away in the regular garbage, this process, of course, can never happen.
"If you put it into the trash, it's going to go to landfill, and we'll never be able to use it again," said Walter Willis, executive director of the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County.
LRS and other recycling companies have a breakdown of what should be going into your recycling bins—paper, metal, glass, cartons, and certain plastic. There are also plenty of materials that cannot be recycled.
Recycling Guidelines by Adam Harrington on Scribd
"We've seen things like bowling balls, children's toys," said Rifkin.
While bowling balls are made of plastic, they cannot be processed at recycling centers—though people regularly seem to try. A 2021 report in New York Magazine's Curbed said 1,200 bowling balls end up in the main recycling plant in New York City every year.
Meanwhile, the biggest no-no is bagging recyclables—they are to be left loose. Styrofoam and plastic bags are to be kept out too.
"Soft plastic you can smash goes in the trash," Rifkin said. "That's like those Amazon envelopes, plastic bags."
But what about those plastic Starbucks cups. CBS News Chicago dropped three into local Starbucks recycling bins, and nary a one was recycled. They all ended up at nearby landfills.
Nationally, 56% of households have access to recycling services that accept cups with recycling symbol No. 5 on the bottom, like the plastic cups Starbucks uses. But in Illinois, that figure jumps to 71%.
Part of the reason is that such facilities as LRS have a machine dedicated to identifying No. 5 plastic cups.
Nevertheless, many such cups don't end up getting recycled.
"We're throwing about a million dollars a day of materials into our landfills here in Illinois that could be recycled," Willis said.
CBS News Chicago looked closer, homing in on the latest information available in Cook County. Right now, about 19% of the county's waste is being diverted from landfills—which means recycling, composting, and reuse.
That figure is well below the diversion rate nationally—around 32%. Looking at the city of Chicago, the numbers are even lower—only 10%. For suburban Cook County, the diversion rate is 27%.
For comparison, Los Angeles County, California, is at 65% for its diversion rate. Ramsey County, Minnesota, where St. Paul is located, has a diversion rate of 87%.
Cook County has a goal of a 45% diversion rate by 2030. The goal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is a 50% diversion rate by 2030—a figure Cook County wants to hit by 2035.
Specific to recycling as opposed to composting or reuse, the rate is 14% for all of Cook County, 18% for the county's suburbs, and 10% again for the city of Chicago.
Recycling is important, allowing us to protect our natural resources, combat climate change, and build up the circular economy. Meanwhile, December was just the right time to get a tour of a facility like LRS, with studies showing we generate around 25% more waste during the holiday season.
Willis spoke directly to the recycling non-believers.
"It's extending the life of our landfills, it's cutting down on climate change, and it's bringing this material we've already harvested from our planet back into the economic mainstream," Willis said.
And with so much more waste produced during the holiday season, there is a lot to learn from those in the recycling trade. The organization Oceana has a list of advice on how to celebrate sustainable holidays.
