A North Side alderman said Wednesday that reallocating $4.7 million in city funds would allow existing recycling services to expand next year to one- third of the households that receive city garbage pickups.
Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th) said in a press conference before the City Council meeting that expanding existing programs, which collect recyclables separately from household garbage, makes more sense than the city`s proposal to start a citywide program that will collect garbage and bagged recyclables at the same time.
”Throughout Chicago, neighborhood organizations have proven that they can provide reliable, cost-effective recycling service, that they create jobs, and that they save the city money by diverting recyclables from landfills,” said Hansen, who earlier this year sponsored the city`s recycling ordinance, which requires that the city make recycling services available citywide by July 1993.
Under his proposal, programs that now serve 40,000 households in the Beverly and Morgan Park neighborhoods on the South Side and scattered North Side neigborhoods would expand to 217,000 households.
The cost of the service would be $5.2 million, said Jo Patton, director of the Chicago Recycling Coalition, which has criticized the city`s bag program as untested and ineffective. The cost would be met by shifting $4.7 million from other items in the Department of Streets and Sanitation`s budget to the $500,000 already budgeted for the curbside programs.
Hansen hoped to get the proposal approved as a budget amendment at Wednesday`s council meeting but did not have enough votes.
The matter was sent to the Budget Committee for a hearing.
