Recycling and composting expected to be mandatory by year's end

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is proposing a law that would make Recycling and Composting mandatory within the city. San Francisco already has the highest diversion rate in the country at 70% and city officials say that this law would be neccessary in order for it to reach their goal of 75%. Jacoba Charles of Plenty Magazine reports:

“We’ve already reached the people who know it’s the right thing to do,” says Thea Hillman with the San Francisco Department of the Environment. “Now we’re at the folks who need not so much the carrot but more of the stick.”

Although mandatory recycling ordinances are already in place in some U.S. cities, San Francisco would be the first to mandate composting.

A major area this law would address is the lower diversion rate for multi-family units. Apartment owners don't always supply recycling & composting bins for their tenants. The enactment of the ordinance would require landlords to provide these bins. This would have a significant impact on the rate since a majority of San Francisco residents are renters.

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CAW and Recycling/Composting:

May 25 - Organic waste should not go to landfill, says US campaigner (Sunday Business Post)

As initially reported by CAW earlier this month, today's (December 24, 2007) Los Angeles Times features a story on how more Californians are recycling, boosting recovery rates for beverage containers to record levels in 2007.

The story, by Times Staff Writer Tami Abdollah, includes quotes from CAW Executive Director Mark Murray, California Department of Conservation Director Bridgett Luther, and a growing cadre of California consumers redeeming their beverage containers for cash.

In January, the state increased the California Refund Value to a nickel for small beverage containers and a dime for large ones. The respective one- and two-cent hikes, they believe, may have changed a lot of perceptions.

"If you see four pennies on the ground and you're walking on the street, are you going to bother to pick them up?" asked Mark Murray, executive director for Californians Against Waste, a statewide environmental organization that focuses on recycling. "Whereas you see a nickel or dime on the ground, you're likely to pick that up. The same thing goes to just seeing that value in a can and thinking, 'I'm tossing a nickel in the trash.' "

For the complete story click here.

The San Francisco Chronicle published a Green Section today on information about how to curtail your waste and what people and organizations are doing already. Everything from how to start a "worm" bin in your home, where to recycle hard and even what to do with today's newspaper when you are done with it besides just tossing it in the recycling bin are in this section.

Currently, the state of California diverts 54% of trash from landfills, a number that has steadily increased since the passage of AB 939 in 1989 that required the state to reach a 50% goal in 2000. This goal however wasn't met until 2005. Increase in the state's population has been one cause of the problem, as well an more and more commercial waste being thrown into landfills. Commercial trash can account for as much as 60& of the waste sent to landfills. CAW Executive Director Mark Murray says in the San Francisco Chronicle,

"We need to update the law to recognize that the waste stream and the waste generating system has changed since 1989. We need to reduce the amount of packaging we're producing."

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Check out information about the zero waste policies at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Fairfield, how to start a worm bin, learn more about how SF's waste goes to Jepsen Praire, and some tips on how to make your home more recycling friendly.