Judith Sanderson wants to do her part to help the environment. But the combination of her time-consuming job as an executive at University of Chicago Hospitals and lifestyle in a high-rise apartment complex have thwarted her good intentions.
She simply doesn`t have enough free time to haul her sorted garbage every week to a recycling center-or two or three.
”We would have more people participating in (recycling) if it were made more convenient,” Sanderson said. ”It`s just not as convenient as it is in other situations.”
Sanderson was an avid recycler when she lived in Princeton, N.J., which has a curbside recycling program, but she found the hurdles in Chicago too hard to overcome.
Sanderson`s dilemma is common to many well-meaning but harried high-rise dwellers. For those without a car, the prospect of recycling becomes even more daunting.
Fortunately, help is on the way.
Sanderson`s complex-Regents Park on South Lake Shore Drive in Hyde Park-is one of a rapidly growing number of high-rises in the Chicago area that are adding recycling programs to their list of tenant services. The programs are popping up in both rental and condo buildings.
At this point, it`s difficult to know exactly how many buildings offer recycling programs because the industry is new and rapidly evolving, experts say.
Earlier this year, Regents Park hired the Resource Center, a non-profit recycling company, to pick up the newspapers residents toss into a large dumpster on the 1,038-unit complex`s property, said Tim Allwardt, general manager and executive vice president of the Clinton Co., owner of the property. The building also collects residents` plastic bags in a smaller bin. Allwardt plans to add a more extensive program this year to recycle plastic, aluminum and glass. He`s in the process of analyzing the costs and benefits of several options, but he declined to be more specific.
”The easier we can make our program, the more successful it will be,”
he said.
Another amenity
And, Allwardt said, the addition of a recycling program is not only good for the environment, it`s good for his business, too, because it`s a service he can tout to potential tenants.
”People who live in high-rises want a lot of conveniences. When they move in here, we take care of them,” he said. ”But we`ve also found that they have a high level of social conscience.”
Further north, Eugenie Terrace launched a recycling program in April for the very same reasons.
The apartment building, at 1730 N. Clark St., placed four bins on the main floor near the loading dock.
The bins, which are clearly marked for newspaper, plastic, aluminum and glass, are smaller than a standard dumpster but bigger than a garbage can.
”We wanted to make it completely voluntary, but most residents are happy to participate,” said Terri Thompson, marketing director for Camco, developer of the building.
Deanna Burton, a resident at Eugenie Terrace, sorts her garbage and hauls it down the elevator to the first floor because the task appeases her conscience.
”It`s a really nice service. Recycling is so hyped up in the media right now,” Burton said.
It`s difficult to know exactly how many residents feel the same way, but Thompson has concluded that a significant number of tenants in the building sort their garbage because the large bins need to be emptied at least once a week.
Nonetheless, Thompson believes it`s important to gently encourage busy residents to recycle.
To launch the program, she shoved a memo explaining the process under each resident`s door and, in a recent edition of Eugenie Terrace`s newsletter, she thanked residents for participating in the program.
She created a special incentive for residents in the contract she signed with Chicago Recycle Inc., the company that picks up the sorted garbage and sells it to factories that recycle it. Chicago Recycle has agreed to donate 10 percent of the money it makes on the Eugenie Terrace contract to an environmental group.
Eugenie Terrace also plans to host several get-togethers this year, featuring speakers on environmental topics.
Do it yourself
Perhaps the most successful programs, though, are the ones residents plan themselves.
That`s the conclusion reached at 3800 N. Lake Shore Drive, where 97 percent of the building`s 95 families participate.
”It`s been so simple because the people are so into it,” said Dee Duncan, the building`s manager. ”What surprised me is that people take time to rinse out the containers.”
It all started at the condominium association`s annual meeting last year. At that meeting, one of the residents, Barbara Wilkey, asked whether it would be possible to start a building-wide recycling program.
”I brought it up once two years ago and was told there were a lot of insurmountable problems with recycling. Since then, I think we`ve all become more aware of environmental problems,” said Wilkey, who is a member of the condominium association`s board of directors. ”Several people in the building had been taking plastic milk jugs over to the park where they have those recycling containers, and doing other things on their own.”
But the advantages of a more organized approach became obvious to Wilkey last fall during a trip she and her fiance took to Seattle. ”We went home to Seattle last fall and found out that all of our friends and my parents were involved in a city-sponsored recycling program. Everybody was real excited about it,” she said.
Sorting it out
Here`s how the program at 3800 N. Lake Shore Drive, which was launched in January, is set up:
– There`s a large container for unsorted garbage in the stairwell of each floor, which has two apartments. Residents can put small amounts of sorted garbage next to the containers. The building`s maintenance crew picks up the sorted and unsorted garbage twice a day.
– There are six 33-gallon drums near the building`s central laundry area in the basement for residents who want to dispose of a large volume of sorted garbage. There are two drums for plastic and one each for glass, tin, aluminum and newspaper. Each drum is clearly identified.
– The maintenance crew empties all of the plastic, glass, tin and aluminum into separate, 55-gallon garbage dumpters outside. Newspapers are tied into bundles before being placed under a cover outside.
The building also closed its garbage chutes to encourage residents to recycle.
”It just seems to have become part of (the residents`) lives. They don`t say anything about it, pro or con; they just do it,” Duncan said.
At Regents Park, Sanderson can`t wait for the full-fledged program to start. ”I think it`s a fabulous thing. There are as many people who live in these high-rise buildings as there are in some communities. There`s plenty of trash.”
