The Chicago Tribune reports that the Second City has taken a big step toward potentially axing its blue-bag recycling program with the launch of a pilot curbside program in seven wards across the city.

 

Also, Chicago will be setting up 15 recycling drop-off centers at parks and other city facilities this month.

 

Chicago´s beleaguered blue-bag program has produced consistently meager participation rates, and City Hall has been plagued by rumors that political patronage is the reason Mayor Richard Daley has stuck with the blue-bag program as long as he has.

 

News about e-waste and the recycling of electronic devices continues to proliferate. The Dallas Morning News provides a good overview of computer makers´ recycling initiatives here.

 

That was a whale of a whiteout Buffalo got whacked with Oct. 12. Thirteen people died, hundreds of thousands went days without heat and electricity, and if you love big, old trees, it leaves you wondering what Mother Nature could possibly have been thinking.

 

Area officials face a monumental cleanup. The Buffalo News reports that the storm created an estimated 30 million tons of debris, much of it tree limbs that gave way under the weight of the 2 feet of wet snow that fell over a 12-hour period. Early cost estimates for the cleanup range from $100 million to $250 million.

 

Pete Fehrenbach is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.