San Fran Tightens Up on Recycling, Composting
San Francisco passed a new law that will make recycling and composting mandatory. The city already boasts a 72 percent recycling rate, but the new law will push the city forward towards its goal of zero waste by 2020.
Residents will be given three bins: a black bin for trash, blue for recyclables and green for composting. Garbage collectors will then be on the lookout for a stray banana peel or beer bottle in the trash cans.
“Clearly, mandatory recycling measures pay off,” says Mayor Newsom. “If we’re going to reach a recycling rate of 75 percent in 2010 and zero waste in 2020, we need to make sure that residents and businesses are taking full advantage of our composting and recycling programs.” Photo: Zimbio.com
If recyclable or compostable items are found in the garbage bins, the resident will be warned on the first offense. Repeat offenders will be issued fines of $100 for small businesses and single-family homes and up to $1,000 for large businesses and multiunit buildings.
According to Nathan Ballard, spokesman for Mayor Gavin Newsom, the City is most excited about the mandatory composting. According to the New York Times, the city already composts 400 tons of food scraps daily. Ninety percent of this goes to enrich the soil of vineyards in Napa and Sonoma Counties.
“When the nation is looking at complex solutions for climate-change reduction, we should not overlook the importance of simple things like increasing the recycling rate and composting,” Blumenfeld says.
For those residents who haven’t been keeping up with their recycling efforts, new technology is tailored to the city of San Francisco. The new EcoFinder iPhone App is now available for download. The interface is similar to Earth911’s new iRecycle App and is able to pinpoint recycling locations for specific materials.
lois spencer
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 11:32 am
making it mandatory to compost is a great idea. I’m going to write the city I live in about this this. Lois
CB
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
This might be a great way to recycle and help the environment, but one must take into account the massive number of poor immigrant families that live in San Francisco. We have enough trouble sometimes understanding basic English, let alone all the issues with different types of recycling. The fine is bogus.
How is someone at a hotel supposed to do this? Have three different garbage cans in the room? What about all the hotels in the Tenderloin? Not only are most of them run by immigrant families, they barely pass health standards, and the city wants to fine them if they don’t separate every piece of trash. It’s bogus.
Nancy
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
that is so awsome! it should be done EVERYWHERE : )
Trey Granger
posted on June 18th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
SF is also putting cell phone recycling bins in BART stations: http://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/headlines2.html?id=1244647315. Go zero waste!
haku wale | to make, invent or improvise » Blog Archive » Ecofinder for iPhone Launch: Social Media Case Study
posted on June 28th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
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haku wale | to make, invent or improvise » Blog Archive » EcoFinder for iPhone
posted on October 13th, 2009 at 10:01 am
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