$1 Million Worth of Idle Recycling Carts

by Will Compernolle Thousands of blue recycling carts totaling nearly $1 million in value are sitting idle in a warehouse in Chicago, the Sun-Times reports. The city acknowledged about 22,000 carts – priced at $45-per-container – are going unused because the city ran out of money one-third of the way through an effort to expand curbside...

by Will Compernolle

Thousands of blue recycling carts totaling nearly $1 million in value are sitting idle in a warehouse in Chicago, the Sun-Times reports. The city acknowledged about 22,000 carts – priced at $45-per-container – are going unused because the city ran out of money one-third of the way through an effort to expand curbside recycling.

Some who have observed the stockpile “insist the actual number is far greater. They say the stacks of carts run 25-deep for at least a block at a warehouse at 900 E. 103rd St., shared by several city departments.” Alderman Joe Moore of the 49th ward “called the stash ‘ embarrassing and a colossal waste of money.'”

Alderman Tom Allen (38th) had a different take on it: “Nobody saw this perfect storm of economic meltdown coming…Having the carts is the cheap part of the equation. The real sore point is that we are treating citizens in different regions of the city unequally. We have to find a way to get this done. If we can’t, we should just repeal the program and go back to do-it-yourself recycling.”

To read the whole article, click here.