Alderman urges city to create financial incentive to boost anemic recycling rate

Chicago should seriously consider replacing its $9.50-a-month garbage collection fee with a volume-based rate to give homeowners a financial "incentive" to recycle - and boost a dismal 9 percent recycling rate, a Northwest Side alderman said Thursday.

Alderman John Arena pointed to Chicago's 7-cents-a-bag tax on paper and plastic bags and the success it has had in driving consumers to reduce bag use and landfill costs.

"Create an incentive. Like we did with the plastic bags. When we banned them, it didn't work. When we created a financial incentive or disincentive from taking one of those single-use bags, there was an 80 percent drop in single-use bags," Arena said.

"Let's create a financial incentive for a resident to divert and participate in the recycling program. … We've already implemented a $10 per household fee for garbage. We just increased their costs. What if we tagged that to the number of black carts you had vs. the number of blue carts. We need to look at that."

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