City focuses on education on America Recycles Day

CHICAGO (WLS) -- America Recycles Day is on November 15, 2015. The nation-wide initiative features community dozens of community events. You can find an event in your neighborhood clicking here. To celebrate America Recycles Day, the City of Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation is launching its Go Bagless public education campaign. The idea is to get Chicagoans to stop using plastic bags and to recycle materials in their blue carts. Plastic bags can hinder the recycling process by not allowing haulers to see if other non-recyclable materials are in the blue cart, contaminating the stream of otherwise good recycling material, and damaging the equipment at sorting facilities.

As part of campaign, Chicago has partnered with Recycle by City for a new educational website that will debut in December. The Recycle by City Chicago website is designed to show residents what can and cannot be recycled in a Chicago blue cart. Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Charles Williams joined ABC 7 Eyewitness News live from a recycling center to talk about the city's new initiatives.

Chicago GOBGALESS campaign in honor of American Recycles Day

Date: Sunday, November 15

Hours: public education campaign, runs through Jan. 1