Chicago Recycling Coalition works to serve the community in an educational and advisory capacity. Local and county governments increasingly wrestle with landfills nearing capacity and rising disposal costs. We recognize that we cannot recycle our way out of the waste crisis. However, recycling is an important practice that can lead to more meaningful changes, such as “reducing” unnecessary packaging and single-use items, and “reusing” what has already been produced. Recycling slows the extraction of scarce, valuable, and strategic resources and generates fewer greenhouse gasses than it does to mine virgin materials, manufacture, and transport. Metal and glass can be recycled indefinitely. Recycling metals, glass, paper, and some plastics is less detrimental than using virgin materials. Combined with “reduce” and “reuse”, we already have the resources we need to shift to a regenerative and circular economy.
We are proud to be a part of an extensive group of organizations in Chicago and Illinois that are working on building a more sustainable city.
Illinois Environmental Council (IEC) brings together the Illinois environmental movement to influence decision-makers and ensure clean air, clean water, and healthy communities.
Illinois Food Scrap and Composting Coalition (IFSCC) is a thriving non-profit organization advancing diversion and composting of all organics in Illinois through advocacy, program implementation, market and business development, policy, and outreach.
Coalition for Plastic Reduction (CPR) is a membership coalition of organizations, institutions and businesses committed to the vision of an Illinois free of plastic waste. Individuals are also welcome to join.
Chicago Environmentalists is an inclusive sustainability community, with a forum for discussing topics like zero waste living, recycling, composting, environmental justice, renewable energy, eco policy, local businesses, wildlife conservation, environmental news, events, and more.
Reduce Waste Chicago hosts events to collect items that can be reused, repurposed or are difficult to recycle, shares best practices with schools, organizations, businesses and individuals, and supports policies that shift the burden of waste from residents to producers.
- Original CRC Content