Workers with the Streets and Sanitation Department pick up garbage Wednesday in an alley behind the 6400 block of North Francisco Avenue. The area, in the 50th Ward, will move to a grid pickup system next month. (José M. Osorio, Tribune photo / May 9, 2012)

By Kristen Mack, Chicago Tribune reporter
8:29 a.m. CDT, May 10, 2012
Starting in June, seven North Side wards will be the first to transition to trash pickup on a grid-based system, a departure from the city's time-honored but inefficient ward-by-ward collection.
That's likely to mean a change in garbage pickup day for Chicagoans who live in wards 46 through 50 and much of the 40th and 44th wards, according to the Streets and Sanitation Department.
The city plans to launch an outreach effort the week before the June 11 start, which will include Post-it-like notes on trash cans. City Hall hopes the minor change in service will lead to major savings.
Picking up trash based on political boundaries rather than geographic routes cost Chicago roughly $225 per ton, compared with other major cities that do it for about $135 per ton, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration.
The mayor, who plans to announce details of the new garbage collection system Thursday, already has factored roughly $20 million in savings in this year's budget by ending garbage pickup based on the misshaped wards. Emanuel anticipates the grid-based approach will save Chicago $60 million a year once the entire city converts.
"It's based on a system like UPS and FedEx, you do it based on efficiency of driving, fewer turns, more straight lines," Emanuel said at a recent news conference. "You get more work done more efficiently."
Aldermen have long resisted the change because trash pickup is one of the few city services over which they have direct control. The current system allows aldermen to promptly respond to constituent requests. Council members also have a say in the hiring of ward superintendents, the Streets and Sanitation employees who oversee trash pickup in each ward.
Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, initially was skeptical about the conversion. Now he's cautious.
"It's a dollars and cents thing. It doesn't make economic sense to do garbage pickup based on ward boundaries that are drawn in a salamander-like way," Moore said. "If we're not able to respond quickly to special needs, pick up a house that's been missed or respond to a fly dumping situation, then we'll have to examine this approach."
Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th, said the change is long overdue.
"We shouldn't be picking up garbage based on political boundaries," Pawar said. "Over the next few years, the city is going to have to make difficult decisions. This one is a gimme."
The city hired a consultant to help it create detailed routes that took into consideration factors such as crew size and drive time to maximize the number of stops per route.
Chicago uses 352 semi-automated, rear-load trucks with as many as three workers for weekly trash pickup at roughly 600,000 households.
"The amount of work they have to perform is still the same," said Chris Sauve, a Streets and Sanitation program director. "We're looking to get the work done with less crews."
Sanitation workers are expected to spend less time in alleys picking up trash because they will no longer have to follow jigsawed ward boundaries.
Under the current system, it takes 26 crews to pick up each ward. By switching to a grid, the city anticipates it will take 22 crews on Mondays and Tuesdays — based on routes that have the largest geographic ground to cover and the most trash, according to the city. On Fridays, the number of crews will be whittled to 16.
Curbside recycling will be picked up on the same new trash collection days, the city said. Recycling already is on a grid system. Last fall, city workers began competing against private companies to see which gave taxpayers a better deal on recycling. Emanuel has noted the private recycling effort could provide a blueprint for outsourcing all of the city's trash collection.
Five Northwest Side wards — the 38th, 39th, 41st and 45th and a majority of the 33rd — will be the next to transition to grid-based garbage pickup. The city has not set a start time for the second phase.