LINCOLN PARK — The mayor celebrated the first anniversary of extending the Blue Cart recycling program citywide Monday by announcing a new partnership with a firm specializing in food and beverage cartons.
The Department of Streets and Sanitation has formed a new pact with the nonprofit Carton Council. According to the Mayor's Press Office, the firm will engage in a "robust citywide recycling outreach and educational campaign focused on encouraging residents to recycle their food and beverage cartons."
Advertisements to promote the recycling of milk containers, juice boxes and other cartons have already been posted at CTA bus shelters and on CTA trains and buses.
In a news conference in Lincoln Park, Mayor Rahm Emanuel cheered "tough management, looking for reforms" that made it possible to "expand service to all parts of the City of Chicago."
According to Streets and San spokeswoman Molly Poppe, the campaign also addresses the misguided public perception that such cartons are not permissible for recycling, as they were previously banned under the blue-bag system, but have always been allowed in the Blue Cart program.
The slogan for the campaign is "Every carton has a future."
The city also touted other gains in the year since Blue Carts were placed in all city neighborhoods.
Last year, Streets and Sanitation crews collected 85,000 tons of recycled items. Thus far this year, the city has collected 80,000 tons, on a pace to top 100,000 tons for the full year.
According to city data, 100,000 tons of recyclables translates into a reduction of 220,000 metrics tons of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from landfills.
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