About Us
Recycling programs reimagined
In 2018, we were among a group of Chicagoans who wanted a city-wide curbside composting program. But Chicago was already struggling with its expensive and contaminated single-stream recycling program.
We built Block Bins to help our concerned neighbors skip the government bureaucracy and crowdfund an affordable and effective curbside compost program.
Now we want to help your city create recycling programs for any material.
Our Mission & Vision
Recycle anything, anywhere, with bins you can share
We believe compost and recycling options should be accessible and ubiquitous.
Our mission is to make compost and recycling options accessible and affordable in cities and suburbs.
Our Values
Community
Bringing neighbors together block by block to make recycling more efficient and to help solve an important environmental issue.
Sustainability
Diverting food waste from our landfills, reducing pests and keeping your block cleaner while creating healthy soil for your community.
Accessibility
Eliminating the barriers to urban composting by ensuring convenience and affordability for everyone on every block.
Why Block Bins?
Not to dump on single-stream recycling, buuut...
Block Bins is a dedicated-stream and shared-bin recycling strategy that solves the problems of traditional single-stream recycling.
Traditional single-stream
vs
Block Bins dedicated-stream
| Accepted material list is confusing and too limited | One material per bin removes ambiguity and confusion |
| Fails to recycle most plastics and other common materials | Dedicated collection enables new recycling methods, so...plastic recycling can recycle ALL plastics |
| Careless users AND wish-cycling cause contamination | Users go a little out of their way to use the bin, filtering out carelessness |
| Sorting co-mingled recyclables is expensive | Pre-sorted streams are cleaner and save more materials. Some materials can even be reused, which is better than recycling |
| High contamination leads to poor overall recycling rates | Virtually no contamination leads to high recycling rates |
Many individual bins
vs
Shared bins
| Introducing new recycling programs like composting is often infeasably expensive | Lower individual pricing becomes available when more people participate |
| Too many bins -> crowded city alleyways | No more mostly-empty bins everywhere. Minimize the number of bins in alleyways |
| Time-intensive to collect all of them | Service an entire block in one quick pickup |
| Collection costs more than the materials are worth, meaning higher recycling bills | Efficient collections makes service viable |
| Mandating participation from people who won't recycle correctly is detrimental to everyone | Opt-in means participants recycle intentionally and without contamination |
| Must pay for an entire container | Pay-as-you-throw: only pay for the space you need |
Our Team
Dane Christianson
Dane is the founder and CEO of Block Bins. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Illinois Tech. Dane created Block Bins because he lives in Chicago and wanted a curbside composting program that was affordable and convenient.
Kyle Preuss
Kyle is the CMO of Block Bins. He has a degree in Advertising from the University of Illinois. Kyle joined Block Bins because he was used to composting in California, and wanted to bring that experience to Chicago.