City suspends, then reinstates plastic

Jul 24, 2023

Sign up for our free newsletter to have Evanston news delivered directly to your inbox every weekday!

Plastic-bag recycling at Evanston’s community centers, which had been temporarily suspended, will soon be reinstated.

City officials said plastic-bag collection bins were removed in late July because Jewel-Osco, which picks up Evanston’s plastic bags as a courtesy, had not responded to requests for pick-ups over the past several months. Now the city reports the plastic-bag collection program should be up and running again in the near future.

“We got word back from Jewel and will anticipate resuming collection here shortly,” said Brian Zimmerman, the City of Evanston’s solid waste coordinator.

The program collects not only plastic shopping bags – which were recently banned in Evanston – but all kinds of plastic film waste. Plastic film is defined as No. 2 and No. 4 polyethylene used to make thin, flexible packaging such as produce bags, bread bags, dry cleaning bags, resealable food storage bags, plastic “overwrap” from cases of water bottles, paper towels and toilet paper, as well as air pillows, bubble wrap, newspaper sleeves, plastic shipping envelopes and cereal bags.

The city has an informal agreement with Jewel-Osco, whose own plastic film waste is sold to Virginia-based Trex for creating building materials out of polyethylene and industrial wood scraps. Evanston’s plastic film has been picked up by the same trucks that collect Jewel’s plastic film, making it effectively a free recycling program for Evanston residents.

“Our program had relied on the goodwill of Jewel-Osco,” said Zimmerman, who explained that public works employees picked up the plastic film from bins at Evanston’s community centers, the main public library and Morton Civic Center, removed any non-recyclable materials and requested a pick-up from Jewel.

But over the past several months, those requests had gone unanswered, so the bins had to be removed until the city heard back from Jewel or found an alternative outlet for plastic film, Zimmerman said.

When queried, a Jewel representative issued the following statement by email: “Jewel-Osco remains committed to its plastics and packaging pledge, which includes the recycling of plastic film and bags by having collection bins available at our store entranceways,” wrote Mary Frances Trucco, director of communications, public affairs and government relations for Jewel-Osco.

“We have worked with the City of Evanston to collect plastic film from the bins at the community centers and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future,” Trucco wrote. “We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Working with Jewel eliminates the need for Evanston to partner directly with Trex, which requires more plastic material than Evanston has been collecting, according to Zimmerman. It would also mean finding a place to store accumulating plastic film, a baler to pack the plastic into tight cubes, and a 50-foot trailer to store the bales until they can be picked up.

“We don’t have the space to hold enough material that they are looking for,” Zimmerman said. “If we did, we would be able to manage plastic film far more efficiently than we did before.”

Until plastic film recycling is fully reinstated, Evanston residents can take plastic shopping bags and other plastic film to local Jewel-Osco stores, as well as the Target at 2209 W. Howard St. Kohl’s, Mariano’s and Food 4 Less also accept plastic film.

As a member of the RoundTable, your support throughout the year supports our work covering all the vital news that matters in Evanston! Please consider making an additional gift!

Your contribution is tax-deductible. We appreciate your support!

Did you know that the Evanston RoundTable is a nonprofit newsroom? Become a member today to support community journalism!

Your contribution is tax-deductible. We appreciate your support!

Meg Evans has written science stories for the Evanston RoundTable since 2015, covering topics ranging from local crayfish, coyotes and cicadas to gravitational waves, medical cannabis, invasive garden... More by Meg Evans