The Plant

Collaborative research + production facility for small food businesses. A project of Bubbly Dynamics.
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The Plant houses indoor and outdoor farms, beer and kombucha breweries, a coffee roaster, chocolate maker, algae R&D labs, and other emerging food producers and distributors.

09/07/2026

Interesting read in the Guardian US about plastic waste in NYC and the resultant raft of implications to health, environmental justice, and more; see link below.

Like many states, NY has a bottle bill ($.05 deposit in their case): a great approach to incentivize recycling. But still, as Judith Enck from Beyond Plastics says in the article , “... plastics recycling is a dead end. It’s never gotten to double digits – right now, we have just 5% to 6% recycling rate for plastic in the U.S. It’s just not a viable solution.”

Excellent, powerful photography by Bryan Anslem and essay by Dharna Noor. Give it a read on your day off today, and consider how you can take action!
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/sep/03/plastic-waste-new-york-environment

09/04/2026

What to do with the random bits of plastic that keep sneaking into your home? First, CHECK THE LIST of items collected by Reduce Waste Chicago for reuse or responsible recycling (see link below), and THEN start putting aside items on their list for Reuse-a-Palooza at The Plant on Sun. Oct. 4.

Even those random bits like square plastic bread tags; plastic toothpaste tubes, brushes, floss containers, and contact lens blister packs can be processed outside the usual landfill-destined trash stream.

And as you stockpile these items, it will probably dawn on you that there's an awful lot of single-use plastic in your day-to-day. Let's talk about how to avoid those plastics in the first place... we've got tips galore for you at Reuse-a-Palooza!

Link to full item list here: https://www.insidetheplant.com/events/reuseapaloozafall2026

09/02/2026

Got too much stuff? It's time to start collecting items for the fall edition of Reuse-a-Palooza on Sun. Oct. 4! In addition to the items onscreen, our partners will be accepting a huge list of items that to divert from traditional waste streams. Full list at the link below, and make sure to keep checking for updates!
https://www.insidetheplant.com/events/reuseapaloozafall2026

08/26/2026

The Snake Saga: When a very lost little snake hitchhiked into The Plant and got itself caught in a trap, we knew we had to call Matt on the Bubbly team, a former reptile handler at the Lincoln Park Zoo. He expertly detached our slithery friend with some olive oil, then gave a quick examination–no damage, hooray! The snake was freed into the native plants area of our yard.

08/13/2026

Great conversations at yesterday's Sustainability Summit with Together Hospitality, held in the Packingtown Museum at The Plant. Shoutout to our own panelists, Carolee from Bubbly and Adam from Closed Loop Farms, and special thanks to the other panelists, Jason Hammel of Lula Cafe, and Kelly Larsen of The Conservation Fund!

08/11/2026

Check out our new lobby signs, crafted by Snail Catalog, a design studio located at Bubbly! These signs are made out of recycled Coroplast, the corrugated plastic that election signs are made out of that remains landfills long after voting has ended. While Coroplast is made of polypropylene, a recyclable type of plastic, only about 3% - 8% is recycled annually.

Laser-cut, wrapped with color and printed with the business names of The Plant, these bubbles are made out of Coroplast that was just sitting around The Plant, waiting to go to the landfill. This was a much-needed improvement from our old paper signs, thanks to Gillian from Snail Catalog for doing such an incredible job on these!

08/10/2026

DePaul University faculty from the Office of Research Services came to take a tour of The Plant last week while DePaul master's and undergraduate students presented their research taking place at The Plant.

These students have been working on installing temperature/humidity sensors across The Plant as a part of our energy visualization and recapture project. They've been onsite the past couple weeks installing and troubleshooting sensors. Their goal is to research the effectiveness of these sensors and the improve the quality of the data, while contributing to our broader energy efficiency project goals.

Read more about our project at this link:
https://www.insidetheplant.com/blog/verdsupdate

08/07/2026

It's time to mark your calendars for the autumn 2026 edition of Reuse-a-Palooza on Sun. Oct. 4! Our awesome partners will be collecting tons of used items including bike parts, towels, clothing, and dozens of other resources as designated on our collection list on our website. Of course, will be back with their repair clinic, and several other organizations will host opportunities to discuss, discover, and get involved with organizations dedicated to environmental and social causes.
Stay tuned at the link in our bio for more details, and check back in with more details as the date approaches!

07/29/2026

Huge thank you to the volunteers who helped us with the plants in our Winter Garden last Friday. You're awesome!

07/21/2026

Stop by the Plant this Wednesday and Friday (Jul. 22 and 24) for Chicago Climate Week, where we'll be showing off our DIY multi-stream recycling system! Come drop off your recyclables and take a self-guided tour of The Plant! The Packingtown Museum and Turtle Stop will be open as usual.

07/15/2026

Call for plant helpers! Message us if you're interested or have questions, or just show up Friday, July 24th at 1pm at The Plant!

06/29/2026

Check out this Union Stockyards board game! You play as one of the meat packing businesses, developing technologies to use every part of the animal while battling labor unions (booo) and manipulating the market to your advantage (yay, capitalism...). Market strategies, labor strikes, and other historical events all affect the gameplay. The details make this a real treat for Chicago history buffs!

06/24/2026

Don’t trash your old batteries, recycle them! The Plant is now a collection site for The Battery Network -- read more about the Illinois legislation that makes safe battery recycling *free*.

We are accepting primary (single-use) and rechargeable batteries as listed here: https://batterynetwork.org/battery-basics/what-to-recycle/

Address

1400 W 46th Street
Chicago, IL
60609

Website

http://www.insidetheplant.com/

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