Ald. Maria Hadden (49) asks Environment Comm. Angela Tovar questions at a budget hearing on Dec. 3, 2024. [Livestream]

The City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy will meet Wednesday to hold a hearing on environmental regulation enforcement and to set up a future hearing on single-use plastics.

The committee will meet at 10 a.m. in council chambers.

First, the committee will consider a proposed re-referral of a subject matter hearing (R2023-0002936) on the “impact and reduction of single-use plastics in Chicago” from the environment committee to the Joint Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy and Health and Human Relations. 

According to the resolution that called for the hearing, which was introduced by Ald. Matt Martin (47), plastics are not sufficiently recyclable and take ages to fully break down. Microplastics pollute soil and water and harm human health, the resolution states. 

“Existing corporate, government, and community infrastructure and policies are unable to adequately address the acute and growing challenges that plastics pose,” according to the resolution. 

Additionally, the resolution says the “burden of the disposal of single-use plastics is currently borne disproportionately by taxpayers and municipalities that are already overwhelmed with solid waste disposal,” with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency also having forecast the Chicago metropolitan area could run out of landfill space by 2030. 

Second, the environment committee will be joined by Chicago public health department leaders to have a hearing on the environmental enforcement and permitting efforts, which are performed by the department of public health, as well as environmental policy efforts. 

Despite the Department of Environment being reestablished in Chicago’s 2024 budget, the department has yet to take back its former environment enforcement duties. Currently, according to 2025 budget documents, the Department of Environment's main functions include the development and implementation of sustainability and climate action policies and plans on a broad level and partnering with other departments to help secure federal and state grant dollars for environmental initiatives and green infrastructure.

During 2025 budget hearings, Chief Sustainability Officer Angela Tovar, who heads the department, told alderpeople the department may not return to all of its old functions despite its resurrection. 

Related: Reestablished environment department will still lack former regulatory powers, alderpeople learn in budget hearing 

Tovar said in December there weren’t any current plans to migrate old positions or enforcement authorities back to the department but said there was an ongoing study “to explore the future” of the department and its role. As of now, environmental enforcement, inspections and permitting are performed by the Chicago Department of Public Health. 

However, Tovar said the environment department was seeking enforcement authority of the city’s Building Energy Use Benchmarking Ordinance from the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. The ordinance requires annual energy use reporting by large properties. 

Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel eliminated the standalone environment department more than a decade ago as a cost-cutting measure. But in 2019, the Better Government Association found that environmental enforcement plummeted after the department’s elimination, leading to calls to bring the department back.

Mayor Brandon Johnson reinstituted the environment department with a $1.8 million Corporate Fund-funded budget and 14 budgeted positions for 2024. That rose to $1.9 million for 2025 while the number of positions remained at 14.