Two steps forward and one step back: Singing the Blue Cart Blues

We were thrilled, of course, when we finally got our genuine, official Chicago blue cart for recycling, the first serious recycling program here on the Northwest Side of Chicago since our pilot "blue bins" program was discontinued some 20 years ago or more.

You'll note that I do not mention the "blue bag" fantasy years. Even those who believed firmly in faerie circles and unicorn glades had trouble accepting the idea that recyclables protected only by blue plastic bags would really be recycled when they saw them smashed in the back of the same truck that compacted the rest of the garbage. Especially when the mandatory blue bags were just a bit thinner than the typical plastic trash bag, and significantly more expensive.

Anyway, for years and years, anyone wanting to really recycle had to bring their stuff to giant bins set up at a handful of locations around the City -- Caldwell Woods, for example, at Milwaukee and Devon. These were almost always overflowing. (Recently, perhaps in recognition of this fact, the City had set up another bin at the 41st Ward yard on Higgins.) The alternative was to bring the family recycling to the homes of friends and relatives in more enlightened municipalities. Park Ridge is close by. Park Ridge has had blue carts for years.

But, finally, we had our own blue cart. It seemed the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

Except...

Well, the first disappointment was that the blue carts would only be picked up every other week. We didn't realize, at first, the problems that this would cause.

Our blue cart was proudly stuffed to overflowing for the first pick-up. It was overflowing, too, for the second pick-up. And the third. In the meantime, stuff that wouldn't fit was piling up in the garage. Fortunately, Hoarders has been cancelled; I was starting to worry that their location scouts would start prowling around.

Finally, on a snowy weekend afternoon around Christmas, my son Jim and I filled the family van with cardboard and shredded paper and other recyclables that never seemed to fit in the blue cart and headed over to the 41st Ward Yard to get rid of the surplus.

But the giant bin was gone.

We went to Caldwell Woods.

Both giant bins were gone.

Why? Why would the City discontinue collecting stuff it can sell? Did the City tie itself up with a non-compete clause when it signed up with Waste Management to belatedly expand the blue cart program?

Defeated, we returned all our stuff to the garage.

We got rid of it today.

The City did not make our regular garbage pickup yesterday. That was no surprise, not even a disappointment. We've had some extreme weather in these parts, two feet of snow and freezing cold, and these recent "Chiberian" conditions stretched the resources of the Department of Streets and San to the breaking point. But looking out at the curb this morning, looking at the overflowing blue cart and the half empty black cart, and knowing there was another entirely empty black cart emerging from a melting snowdrift on the side of the house, something in me snapped.

I threw all the cardboard out. Anything I couldn't wedge in the blue cart went into the black carts. All were overflowing before I was done. I know it was wrong. But I think it was necessary.

Now if we could just get an electronics recycling day scheduled somewhere nearby, I might get my garage back. Meanwhile I'm singing the Blue Cart Blues....