Reduce Waste Chicago

So ... what are you doing this summer? Join us as we pitch our tents for Reuse & Recycling Pop-Ups in new neighborhoods (after we make space in our storage unit 😜).

🌎 Wed., June 24: Material sorting at our storage unit
🌎 Sat., July 18: Reuse & Recycling Pop-Up during Bevapalooza at Beverly Unitarian Church
🌎 Sun., Aug. 9: Reuse & Recycling Pop-Up at Independence Park Farmers Market

👉 Sign up today: https://reducewastechicago.org/volunteer/

Whether you have an hour or two or the whole day, you'll finish up knowing you made a difference. Promise 😎

The Dunkin’ at Home Free Recycling Program with TerraCycle is closing. That’s the simple version of why we’ll no longer be accepting Dunkin’ coffee bags at our collection events.

But it’s not as simple as that.

TerraCycle’s free programs are paid for by brands to recycle their products. It’s the closest thing there is to a national extended producer responsibility (EPR) program, which require companies to address the end life of the products they sell and profit from.

So when a brand that partners with TerraCycle doesn’t feel like paying to process their products’ waste anymore, they just stop.

So what now?

To start, plastic coffee bags aren’t accepted by Chicago’s municipal recycling program, so please don’t put them in your blue cart.

If you’ve been collecting Dunkin’ coffee bags to drop them off at one of our events, you can drop them off with our amazing friends at EcoShip Chicago, who will be accepting them for us for a few more days at their HQ at 3248 N. Pulaski Road, Wednesday (4/8), Friday (4/10) and Saturday (4/11), 10 a.m.-3 p.m. (Thank you, EcoShip!)

🚨IMPACT UPDATE!🚨 A huge thank you to our 45 drop-off locations and YOU for helping us collect 4,227 pounds of holiday string lights this year. That brings our five-year total to 14,801 pounds of holiday lights diverted from the landfill!

This year we were able to expand from 17 to 26 wards across the city, making it easier for more Chicagoans to recycle broken string lights responsibly.

Huge thanks also goes to:
✨ Union Pacific's Community Ties Giving Program for their $5,000 grant
✨ Our sponsors: Chicago Waldorf School , Alderman Matt Martin - 47th Ward and State Representative Lindsey LaPointe
✨ The owners, alders, managers and staffs at our 45 drop off locations
✨ And the team at WasteNot Compost, our transportation and logistics partner. Not only did they collect lights for us from their customers, they picked up lights from all 45 locations and transported them to Elgin Recycling in style, using their electric cargo van.

Still got lights? We collect string lights at our events year round. Next up: Reuse-a-Palooza, Sunday, March 15, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at The Plant , 1400 W. 46th Street.