People living in condo or apartment buildings in Chicago may now find it easier to "go green" … thanks to a new ordinance designed to encourage composting.
Danielle Hepko and her husband have been composting for eight years.
"We've had a lot of transitions in our lives, and composting was one of the easier ones," said Hepko.
They keep a small compost bin in their refrigerator for banana peels, coffee grounds and other organic matter. That gets emptied into a larger bucket outside their Ravenswood condo, which a service picks up every two weeks.
"There’s at least two or three other people composting in my building," said Hepko.
But North Center alderman Matt Martin says other condo or apartment tenants have complained that their property managers won't let them use composting services, for what Martin describes as "little to no reason."
His ordinance approved last month by Chicago City Council prevents building owners from imposing unreasonable restrictions on composting.
"About 20-percent of our waste stream can be composted," said Martin (47th Ward). "Our need around composting is going to grow and not shrink, and best for us to get a handle on it before things really take off."
Before final action by City Council, Little Village alderman Raymond Lopez raised concerns that a building owner and not the tenant would get ticketed for any issues with overflowing waste.
However, Lopez (15th Ward) told colleagues that "in working with the sponsor and others, it’s my understanding that we'll be able to work on this moving forward."
So there could be changes, without throwing the whole thing into the bin.