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C&D Recycling Rules

Chicago has had a construction and demolition recycling requirement since 2006. If your project has a building permit, it applies to you.

(619) 658-9555Ask us how the load is sorted

The requirement

Fifty percent, documented after the job

This is the part of Chicago construction that catches out-of-town contractors, and it is worth understanding before the first container arrives rather than thirty days after the last one leaves.

The ordinance in short

Chicago's construction and demolition debris recycling ordinance began at 25 percent of recyclable material by weight for projects permitted after 1 March 2006, and rose to 50 percent for permits issued from 1 January 2007. Material that cannot lawfully be recycled — anything contaminated with lead, asbestos or other hazardous substances — sits outside the calculation.

Compliance is demonstrated after the work, within a short window of project completion, and the obligation runs with the permit for the work. The Department of Public Health administers it, and it can be tied to the release of permits or a certificate of occupancy.

Chicago Municipal Code 11-4-1905 · administered by CDPH. Confirm the current text before relying on it for a specific project.

Two honest caveats. The city's own Inspector General reported in 2023 that enforcement had been thin and that the department had not had staff dedicated to monitoring these projects for some years. That is a statement about enforcement, not about the requirement — the obligation is still on the books and still attaches to your permit. We would not advise building a plan around weak enforcement.

City and county differ

Fifty in the city, seventy outside it

This is the detail that trips up contractors who work both sides of the city limits, and it runs the opposite way to what most people assume.

Inside the City of Chicago the requirement is 50 percent of recyclable C&D debris. In suburban and unincorporated Cook County, a separate county rule requires demolition contractors to recycle 70 percent of their debris — a higher bar, and one that does not apply inside the city at all.

So a contractor running the same kind of job in Berwyn and in Austin is working to two different numbers under two different authorities. If your project sits right on the boundary, establish which one you are in before you plan the waste stream.

It is also why we only work the city. One jurisdiction, one set of rules, one answer when you ring.

Construction and demolition debris on a Chicago site

In practice

What actually gets recycled out of a Chicago job

The requirement is about recyclable material, and a typical city rehab produces a great deal of it. The question is whether it leaves the site in a form a facility can work with.

Material	Recyclable	What helps
Concrete, brick, block	Readily	Keep it in a clean container. One bag of rubbish re-classifies the load.
Chicago common brick	Readily, and salvageable whole	Worth setting aside intact — there is a genuine reclaim market for it.
Dimensional lumber and timber	Yes	Keep plaster and fixings off it where you can.
Metals — pipe, radiators, flashing, wire	Yes, and worth separating	Old cast-iron radiators and copper have their own route.
Drywall	Sometimes	Clean offcuts only; painted and plastered board is harder.
Asphalt shingle	Often	Keep the tear-off in its own container rather than mixed.
Plaster and lath	Limited	The lath is timber; the plaster mostly is not. Expect this to be the hard part.
Anything with lead or asbestos	No — excluded entirely	Licensed abatement and documented disposal. Outside the calculation.

Sorting

How to make the numbers work without three extra containers

Keep heavy clean loads clean Concrete, brick and block in their own container, and nothing else in it. That single container usually does more for the percentage than everything else combined, because it is heavy and the requirement is measured by weight.
Pull the metal before anything else Radiators, pipe, boiler parts, flashing, wire. It is a small volume with a route of its own, and in a Chicago two-flat there is a surprising amount of it.
Salvage the brick if the building offers it Chicago common brick comes out of a careful demolition in usable condition and there is a real market for it. It is the one material where slowing down pays.
Sequence the demolition Strip the recoverable material before the destructive phase rather than picking through the pile afterwards. Afterwards never works.
Keep the paperwork as you go Weight tickets, facility names, dates. Assembling it at the end from memory is how projects fail the documentation rather than the recycling.

Who this applies to

And who it does not

The ordinance attaches to permitted construction and demolition work. If you have a building permit for a gut rehab, a deconversion, an addition or a demolition, the requirement is in play and the documentation falls to the permit holder.

If you are clearing out a basement, emptying a relative's apartment, taking a deck down or getting rid of furniture, it is not. That is ordinary waste and nothing about the ordinance touches it — though Illinois' own landfill bans still apply, and those catch far more household jobs than the recycling rule ever does. What Illinois bans →

Where it gets blurred is the middle: a large owner-managed rehab that has a permit for part of the work. If you are unsure which side you are on, the building permit is the test. If the project has one, assume the requirement applies.

Common questions

What people ask when they call

Does the recycling requirement apply to my basement cleanout?

No. It attaches to permitted construction and demolition work. A household clearance is ordinary waste — though the Illinois landfill bans still apply to it.

Who has to file the documentation?

The permit holder for the work, after the project finishes and within a short window. It is not something the container company files on your behalf, though we can tell you where the loads went.

Is it really enforced?

The city's Inspector General found enforcement had been thin and that staffing for monitoring had lapsed. The requirement is still on the books and still tied to your permit, so we would not plan around that.

Why is suburban Cook County 70 percent when the city is 50?

Different authorities and different ordinances. The county rule covers demolition contractors in suburban and unincorporated Cook and does not reach inside the city limits at all.

Does asbestos count towards the percentage?

No — material contaminated with asbestos, lead or other hazardous substances is excluded from the calculation, because it cannot lawfully be recycled. It needs licensed abatement regardless.

Do I need separate containers to hit 50 percent?

Usually one clean heavy container plus your mixed load does most of the work, because the measure is by weight and concrete and brick are heavy. Tell us the job and we will suggest the split.