Anyone out for a jog in the past few months has likely noticed the new trash cans that now line the walkways of Chicago’s green spaces.

With a pyramid-like tip that seems to anticipate the inevitable attempts at garbage-stacking, the four-sided cans offer a place for trash and recyclable materials in the same receptacle.

Steve Holland, CEO of Sugar Grove-based Free Green Can, prefers to call his product a “recycling kiosk.”

Since late June, around 3,000 of these kiosks have popped up in neighborhoods like Wrigleyville and Wicker Park, as well as throughout the city’s parks system. Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno (1st) recently ordered 20 cans for his Near Northwest Side ward. Free Green Can monitors, cleans and replaces the receptacles.

To foot the bill for these services, the company runs advertisements on all four sides of the container. Holland said that he only sells space to responsible, eco-friendly campaigns.

“It’s not about pushing their product,” he said. “It’s about doing the right, environmentally sustainable thing.”

FGC has ad deals with at least three companies: Solo Cup, which runs spots on kiosks in and around Wrigley Field; General Mills, whose Yoplait Greek Yogurt products get face time on cans in Wicker Park; and PepsiCo, which has ads in each target area, along with exclusive rights to the kiosks in the public parks.

Dream Machine, a recycling program of PepsiCo, sponsored the company’s kiosks in the park, “effectively increasing public access to recycling bins in the Park District by 125 percent,” according to a PepsiCo release.

When the cans don’t have paid ads, the panels are adorned with pro-recycling slogans such as “This Can Saves Trees,” and statistics that point to the increased likelihood of consumers buying products that “show green efforts.”

Bob O’Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy, a non-profit group that promotes funding and improvement projects for the downtown park, where around 400 Free Green Cans have recently been installed.

Normally a staunch decrier of advertisements in public places (as well as large billboards), O’Neill said he found the ads on the new cans to be tastefully “minimal.”

“This is an urban, creative way of funding public assets and funding recycling and waste removal,” he said.

Compared to the old city-distributed bins, O’Neill said that the kiosks are “much more attractive and much more accessible.”

Park district spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said that partnership with Free Green Can lifted some of the burden of trash removal from the district’s landscape staff, who can now focus on other jobs such mulching, turf restoration, mowing and trimming.

By donating the cans, said Holland, Free Green Can is “saving the district and the city of Chicago millions of dollars because they no longer have to purchase these kiosks.”

Those savings come as a much-needed break. Last year, the district ramped up program fees and sought additional furlough days from union employees to patch a $22 million gap in its $400 million spending budget. In March, the agency closed its facilities for a day in an effort to save roughly $2.5 million.

But while the real financial benefits of the kiosks on the park district side are yet to be known, the agency has seemingly hit a sweet spot in what can often be a sensitive area for municipal bodies in need of new revenue streams.

In March, the park district approved a sponsorship contract with Free Green Can to install 2,500 kiosks in the city’s parks, with an expiration date of December 31. As part of the deal, the company agreed to give the district 10 percent of the gross revenues generated from the advertising on the cans. The district also assigned a committee to review all advertising content that would go on the cans.

During the same meeting, the district’s board approved another pilot program with Fresh Picked Marketing, a Lincolnshire-based company that had proposed to take advantage of marketing opportunities within the parks system such as basketball backboards, baseball fences and lifeguard perches, to name a few.

“That’s the one that we thought was pure advertising, and we opposed that,” said Erma Tranter, president of the Friends of the Parks, an organization which advocates for Chicago’s parks and outlying forest preserves.

Like O’Neill, Tranter said that her group had been pleasantly surprised by the content on the Free Green Cans.

“Since they went up, they’ve been respectful and [the ads] have been tastefully done,” she said. “The writing really tries to educate people on actually recycling materials in the park, which is a positive thing.”

Tranter said that seeing the influx of advertising proposals going before the park district was “totally new,” and something worth keeping an eye on.

But so far, Tranter said, the new cans seemed to be working to everyone’s advantage.

“And we can only say ‘so far,’” she said.

Faulkner said that Fresh Picked Marketing “has not yet placed any advertising in parks.” Calls to the company’s president Philip Lynch were not returned for this story.

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By Marie from Printers Row
Posted: 11/16/2011 11:58 AM

All these garbage cans (billboards) in our parks makes the city look like trash. Have you seen South Michigan Ave/Grant Park? Do we really need a garbage can (billboard) every 20 feet? I noticed these cans also popped all over Polk Street, between Clark and State. I thought this was only a Park District thing... There are parks nearby, but this is a bit of a stretch.

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By Uptown to Downtown daily from uptown
Posted: 11/15/2011 7:17 PM

I am absolutely incensed by this intrusion into our parks. The cans are clearly vessels for ads, setting up the lakefront to be the most ad-dense area in Chicago. They are placed every 100 feet or so for 15 miles, sometimes in clusters, and usually in areas where the only traffic is cyclists, joggers and rollerbladers, people not likely to throw anything away. That they are trying to sell it to us with a recycling initiative is just insulting because of this.

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By Uptown to Downtown daily from uptown
Posted: 11/15/2011 7:17 PM

I am absolutely incensed by this intrusion into our parks. The cans are clearly vessels for ads, setting up the lakefront to be the most ad-dense area in Chicago. They are placed every 100 feet or so for 15 miles, sometimes in clusters, and usually in areas where the only traffic is cyclists, joggers and rollerbladers, people not likely to throw anything away. That they are trying to sell it to us with a recycling initiative is just insulting because of this.

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By One Glove from Formerly of Gary
Posted: 11/15/2011 3:46 PM

Remember, Pepsi did start the sad demise of our beloved Michael Jackson :) (tic)

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By A Runner from Lakeview
Posted: 11/15/2011 3:06 PM

These cans are ridiculous. I have nothing against keeping things clean. I do have a problem with a can every 100 feet—the cans themselves become the litter. One every quarter or half mile would suffice. As it is our 18 miles of path are buried under plastic bins eagerly educating me on the merits of recycling and the ROI advertising on trash cans. If anything should be recycled, it is 75% of these cans.

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By Lakefront Runner from Uptown
Posted: 10/19/2011 8:56 PM

There are 96 of these cans in the 2.2 miles of path between Diversey Harbor and Montrose - that\\\\\\\'s one every 120 feet. These cans aren\\\\\\\'t there to collect trash or recycling; they\\\\\\\'re a sad excuse to litter our lakefront path with advertising. Shame on the Park District for selling out like this.

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By Lakefront Runner from Uptown
Posted: 10/19/2011 8:55 PM

There are 96 of these cans in the 2.2 miles of path between Diversey Harbor and Montrose - that's one every 120 feet. These cans aren't there to collect trash or recycling; they're a sad excuse to litter our lakefront path with advertising. Shame on the Park District for selling out like this.

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By Old Timer from 14th and Michigan
Posted: 10/09/2011 1:25 PM

Ugliest goddam garbage cans I\'ve ever seen, I much preferred the smaller and less obtrusive cans previously used. I throw my garbage on the \"recycle\" side in a feeble effort to irritate the finger wagging schoolmarms who think these eyesores are a good idea.

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By Susan Nodot from LaGrange IL
Posted: 10/06/2011 4:31 PM

Absolutely love Free Green Can. The kiosks looks terrific and having recycling available to our local and tourist traffic is fantastic. Chicago has a reputation as being a "clean" city. I feel fortunate to work in supporting Free Green Can in any way possible!