Recycling rates in Illinois reveal one of the most wasteful states in the nation. According to the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, Chicago has a residential recycling rate of only 9%, one of the lowest in the entire country. This means that 91% of the waste in Chicago goes to the landfills and other waste treatment facilities.To fix this, I believe that citizens who choose to recycle should be rewarded with tax benefits. With Chicago being densely populated, the city already faces issues with bad air and water quality. Recycling reduces the need for extracting, refining and processing raw materials, all of which create air and water pollution. Recycling also helps to reduce global climate change because recycling saves energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.  Citizens have been asked to recycle for years now, but it is clear that previous incentives have failed. If there is a way to reward citizens that recycle with tax benefits, more people would recycle. All citizens in Illinois will have to fill at least 1 bin full of recycling material over the course of 3 weeks in order to qualify for tax benefits. Overall, having incentives like this can help save the environment and make our cities a cleaner place to live in.