Chicago’s Homegrown Resistance
Residents of the city’s Southeast Side waged a grassroots fight against a polluting industry and environmental racism—and won.
By Christopher Johnson, Published on the Progressive Magazine
January 9, 2023
For decades, General Iron operated a metal recycling facility on the western edge of Chicago’s affluent Lincoln Park neighborhood. There, the company shredded automobiles, refrigerators, and other metal products and sold the scrap in the lucrative metal recycling market.