I have a defective CFL I need to dispose of safely. Earth 911 and the city recycling site all seem to want to send me to far distant shores to get rid of this thing. There is a reference on the city site to a program that was launched or is about to be launched (it's not real clear) under which some Ace Hardware stores will accept the bulbs.

Also, there's a reference to Ikea taking them, but I'm not sure if this is just their bulbs or if they take them from anywhere.

Any advice? If I have to drive a long way, I'll just seal it carefully in an empty barrel and take it for disposal when I have a critical mass of them.

I am in the process of cleaning out my apartment to move in the spring and have managed to come up with several 50 gallon trash bags of clothing to donate. I have way too many bags of stuff to take it to a drop off location without using a car, which I do not have. Does anyone know of any services in the city of Chicago that would come by and pick this stuff up? I don't want to just throw it away because a lot of it is still in almost brand new condition.

I reside in one of the wards that is testing the blue cart recycling program. However, I live in an apartment building that does not offer a recycling plan or program. The private waste haulers that serve multi-unit residential buildings in the city of Chicago are supposed to sort the trash but I question to what extent that really happens. I thought about dumping some of my recyclables into some nearby single family home's blue bins but some of my neighbors are doing that already and the bins are full to overflowing before pick-up. I know that there are recycling drop-off centers but what do you do when you don't have a car? Taking a big ol' garbage bag of recyclables on the bus doesn't seem like a great idea.

I recently started a newspaper subscription and the amount of recyclable material I put in the trash has now doubled. I feel guilty that I'm not recycling, I feel embarrassed to live in a city with such an ineffective system, and I feel a little ashamed that I don't go out of my way to make more of an effort. How do you fellow apartment dwellers deal with the recycling situation here?

Hi guys...

Looking for a recycling place where i can dump my computer monitor instead of putting it in the trash and killing toddlers and young birds. I live in aurora, but i'm willing to drive anywhere.

Any ideas where i can find a place? thanks.

ike