Stossel: Coronavirus cans the bag ban (taxes)

[VIDEO] Grocery stores and pharmacies are considered essential business as people still want to pick up prescriptions and over the counter medication. People also still have to eat and while many restaurants are open for take out orders only, your best bet is still go to the grocery store and find your ingredients so that you can cook.

I noted this a while ago in a post about coronavirus numbers and the effect of the pandemic on "essential" retail. A few grocery stores aren't allowing for the usage of re-usable bags I know for sure the Jewel-Osco, Whole Foods Market, and Target if you go to a cashier they won't package your items in your reusable bags.

Personally reusable bags are very convenient, however, what's noted in this John Stossel video is that there are many of us who don't take the time out to clean them. Sometimes I throw them in the washers, however, sometimes it's just something that I don't take the time to do. If you don't clean them then you could be carrying microbes on your reusable bags that are often dangerous.

Stossel takes aim at the attempts by governments around the nation to ban plastic bags. Chicago has asserted a 7 cent bag tax to encourage use of reusable bags. It's understood that they want to discourage use of those plastic "Jewel" bags. Unfortunately whether or not you use a "Jewel" bag or a paper bag, you still get charged a 7 cent tax. And paper is not only better for the environment not only because they are reusable (even if fragile as you see in video above) they are also recyclable, yet if we use a paper bag from a store we STILL get charged a tax.

Another thing of note is that while Whole Foods, Target, and Jewel that I know of for sure seemed to have waived collecting the city' bag tax. If you go to Mariano's and use a bag with them they will still charge you the 7 cent tax.

In my opinion, who knows if this is going away. Since the pandemic has caused the shut down of many businesses, surely tax revenues are down. Since in many places there is already a bag tax enacted, my idea is this is one convenient tax that won't go away. Especially since people during this difficult time still got to go out to shop for "essential" items.

Any other retailer - especially grocery stores - still charging you the 7 cent bag tax? Let us know...

Recyling Warning -- keep the trash from overflowing!

The 8000 Blocks of Calumet & Prairie were skipped when the city had the Thanksgiving Day holiday & mandatory furlough day the next day.

i had waited patiently, thinking that there was a slight back-up, and that they would come later.

Nope, didn't happen. When i did call, they simply waited until the next pick-up.

(Enclosed are some photos of the back up of several homes for 3 weeks of non pick-up).


With Christmas, there's definitely plenty that could be recycled. Wrapping paper especially can easily be recycled, as well as boxes, cans & bottles (from that delicious food you're making!).

However, we need to make sure we don't create a mess during the one time of the year where the blue cans are SURE to be filled.

If you notice a problem, call city's 311, or also the 6th Ward Streets & Sanitation office at 312-747-8776. They will pass on your concern to those responsible for the blue cart pick up.

Let us (and the alderman's office, 773-846-7006) if you experience any issues that aren't being resolved.

Some other suggestions:

• SMASH your boxes -- maximize the space in your can
• SAVE your gift bags & boxes whenever possible.
• CALL right away if you notice your recycables were not picked up on time.
• ASK a neighbor who might not be using their can to use theirs if needed. It's rude to dump more that small piece of trash or two into someone else's can, so please ASK first for big uses.

Have a safe & blessed holiday!

UPDATE: The garbage collectors (for the black bins) arrived a day early, this afternoon (rather than the usual Tuesday morning).  So hopefully they are working ahead of time...

Illinois utility begins light bulb recycling

AP:

The state of Illinois has partnered with Ameren Illinois Utilities to offer recycling bins for compact flourescent light blubs.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Ameren announced the program Tuesday. The utility says it will use a $50,000 grant from the department to place nearly 100 recycling containers in its service area.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, CFL bulbs use one-third the energy of traditional incandescent bulbs, last up to 10 times longer and save $30 or more in energy costs over their lifetime.

This program is being utilized in downstate cities, but it would be nice to see ComEd create such a program here in Chicago!

Blue Cart pick up starts this week in the 6th ward

An update on the blue carts.

If you recieved one, you should have also received some information on it, including collection schedule.

In the 6th ward, homes SOUTH of 79th street will get the recycleables picked up THIS week (Dec. 1) and then every OTHER week after that. Homes NORTH of 79th street will get the recycleables picked up NEXT week (Dec. 8) and then every OTHER week after that.

Please note this blue cart is not a regular garbage can, so please be mindful what goes in there. Something that stuck out to me: plastic grocery bags, light bulbs and styrofoam should not go in the blue carts. There is a photo of what should go in on the top of the blue cart.

For more information on the Blue Cart system, check the city's Blue Cart website.

Today on Thanksgiving Eve

At about Noon today a truck pulled up on the street and gave our block some blue containers for recycling. I was on 87th Street yesterday morning and saw them up and down 87th Street in front of the houses. I thought they were supposed to be in the alleys.

I had to walk around to see where they were installing them. I looked up the street in both directions and saw that there weren't blue containers in the front yards on the street. I had to go up a couple of block to see a block that had been delivered their blue containers.

I caught up with the crew who delivered ours. They just drove around the block and took care of the neighbors behind us. Today was the day to strike a blow for recycling.

Well I'm surprised they came by today, but I've been knowing about this for a while. So have those of you who read this blog and live in the 6th!

The Blue Carts are coming!

Awesome! From this month's Aldermanic newsletter which also gleeful over the election of Chicago's own Barack Obama as President of the United States:

Blue Cart recycling is finally coming to the 6th Ward in November 2008. Attend an information meeting in your community to learn more about:

The new recycling program

Find out what materials are recyclable

Learn about resources for safe disposal of nonrecyclable materials

Find out when your recyclables will be picked up

Find out what happens to the materials you recycle

Sign up to be a Recycling Block Captain

Meeting dates and locations as follows:
Mon., Nov. 10, 7 p.m., Washington Park, 5531 S. King
Thurs., Nov. 13, 6:30 p.m. at Coleman Library, 731 E. 63rd St.
Mon., Nov. 17, 7:00 p.m. at Whitney Young Library 7901 S. King Dr.
Tues., Nov. 18, 7 p.m., Tuley Park, 501 E. 90th Pl.

Questions?
Call 312-744-5702 or visit bluecartschicago.org

The blue bag program is no more

Well I think it's great that the city is attempting to encourage recycling. At that I wondered how much money the city made by having such a program, especially from recycling plastics and paper. Either way there were complaints about this program not being up to snuff and in some wards blue bags gave way to blue bins.

That's right instead of buying blue bags at your local grocery store you can get blue bins for your recyclables. Something I don't think is a bad idea, however, they only started those in select wards. For instance the 8th Ward was the first to take part in this new program within the last year or so.

Anyway Clout City offers a story about the new program...

City officials offered no lamentations for the program in announcing its demise at a press conference in Uptown. By the end of the summer, they said with pride, blue bags and other recyclable materials will no longer be sorted out of trash collected by city sanitation crews.

Instead, the city will resume its slow expansion of blue cart recycling, in which residents toss their recyclables into a container for separate pickup. An additional 92,000 households will have blue cart recycling by the end of the summer (see map), and all residential buildings with city garbage pickup--those with four or fewer units--will have blue cart recycling by 2011. Areas that already have blue carts have recycled at about triple the rate they did with blue bags.

The city will also begin adding more sites where residents without the service can drop off materials for recycling.

"This is a day to celebrate," said Suzanne Malec-McKenna, commissioner for the Chicago Department of Environment. "We have accomplished much, but we also understand we have a lot of work to do. Our programs and initiatives have earned praise from many in the environmental arena, but the one consistent area of concern has always been recycling."