This Chicagoland Chimney Sweep Is Green

In Europe, chimney sweeping is known as the Black trade.

Our vehicles are red but Valley Chimney Sweep is really very green.

We may arrive in black uniforms in our red vans but we are green at heart.

We like being conscientious corporate citizens and we try to recycle everything we can to help the environment. We even give reusable shopping bags to our sweeping customers.

The most obvious material from our chimney sweeping service is the wood ash that we have at the end of each day. Unfortunately, this is the least recyclable, now days. We use it around our own home and garden for fertilizer and pest protection around the trees and shrubs.

We take in lots of metal. Old wood stoves, rusty rain covers, melted grates and old chimney parts go to the scrap yard weekly. With our pop cans and liner parts, we recycle pounds of aluminum monthly.

Our chimney rebuilding crew hauls tons of masonry from all the chimney repair jobs. We do have to pay for the correct recycling container and hauling it away. We all realize that the re-use of this material is better than dumping it in a land fill. A recent masonry dumpster bill was over $1000.

All our cardboard and plastic goes to the Thompson Center in Aurora.

All our packing and food service styrofoam goes to Dart Industries in Aurora.

All the newsprint goes to United Congregational’s recycling bin in Yorkville.

Household, button and rechargable batteries go to the local Ace/RadioShack for recycling along with any CFL bulbs.

Empty ink cartridges go back to our local Office Max store.

Old electronics go to the City of Yorkville site.

Shredded files go into our home composter ( with a little wood ash ) for gardening usage.

The City of Yorkville has this handy dandy recycling resource guide to help.

It does take some time, effort and money, but we appreciate the GREEN lifestyle and think every little bit makes a difference. We hope you do too!