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Click here to sign the Chicago Recycling Coalition’s petition to urge the City of Chicago to follow the law that bans landscape waste from landfills.

The City of Chicago has recently made exciting progress towards becoming a more sustainable city by updating and improving its composting ordinance. We think it is important to maintain this momentum, which is why AUA has recently signed onto the Chicago Recycling Coalition‘s letter which demands that the Department of Streets and Sanitation enforce an Illinois state law that mandates that landscape waste be diverted from landfills.

Although the State of Illinois banned landscape waste from entering landfills 25 years ago (415 ILCS 5/22.22), the City of Chicago’s website shows that yard waste pickup is almost non-existent. In contrast, large cities across the US, including New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, have been able to create efficient landscape waste disposal programs.

We think Chicago should be next, so along with the Chicago Recycling Coaltion, AUA joins organizations such as Angelic Organics Learning Center, the Illinois Environmental Council, and Openlands in encouraging the City to develop and implement a systematic residential landscape waste program that brings Chicago up to state standards.

As a high-carbon material, landscape waste can be a vital resource for compost, which is essential for Chicago’s farms and gardens. AUA urges the City to comply with the Illinois state law so we can prevent this abundant material from being wasted.

For the full text of the Chicago Recycyling Coalition’s letter, click here.

If you support the effort to keep landscape waste out of landfills, sign on the Chicago Recycling Coalition’s petition here.