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Last summer Kalebich’s employer, Allied Waste, one of the biggest waste companies in the country, opened a new plant in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood to sort and recover the wood, paper, metal, concrete, rock, drywall, and other stuff generated by area construction and demolition work. Demand for this material has swelled over the last few years—the use of recycled products helps qualify buildings for LEED certification and other “green” designations, which helps developers market them to environmentally conscious clients.
And there’s typically a big supply of it. In recent years about half of the 8.2 million tons of waste produced annually in the city of Chicago has been C & D debris, as it’s known.
Inside, workers grab unusable junk off the piles—plastic rings, plastic bottles, bags, pieces of carpet or insulation. When operating at full capacity and handling lots of heavy material, there’s work for 17 employees at a time. The whir and grind of machines requires a near-shout to be heard.
