Inspired by this report by WBEZ Chicago , we have decided to tackle the excess amounts of Chicago's yard waste ending up in landfills. Although collection requests for yard waste are higher than ever, the City of Chicago is picking up significantly less yard waste than years past.
The city of Chicago currently uses a Yard Waste Pickup Service by 311 Requests. When a resident requests pickup by 311, the City is sent to collect the waste and send it for composting.
However, many residents do not believe their yard waste is actually sent to composts. They find it stays out where they left it, until it suspiciously vanishes with their trash on garbage collection days. Even with high rates of collection requests, less than 1% of eligible households put in collection requests. Clearly, the current system is not working.
Not only does yard waste take up plenty of space in landfills, it also decomposes anaerobically to produce methane. Methane gas, though not as recognized as carbon dioxide, produces 86 times more warming than the same amount of carbon dioxide, which makes it a significant contributor to climate change. (Scientific American)
Despite landfills implementing a system to capture methane released into the air, it has captured only 345 million metric tons in the past twenty years. That may sound like a lot, but landfills release about 100 million metric tons each year. It simply isn't enough.
Tweets by chiyardwaste