San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is proposing the possibilty of making recycling mandatory in the city. This follows news that the city had attained a 70% solid waste diversion rate which ranks as one of the highest in the nation. A New York Times article details San Fancisco's aggressive waste reduction and recycling programs, which includes a residential green waste composting infrastructure.

Mayor Newsom feels that mandatory recycling is the only way for the city to achieve %75 waste diversion.

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What CAW is doing to increase residential recycling opportunities statewide>>>

New York City Council Member Bill de Blasio, who has introduced a motion to ban polystyrene city-wide, has started a pilot project that will swtich some NYC schools from polystyrene trays to compostable bagasse trays, a material produced from the waste produced from sugar cane production. Swell Chan of the New York Times reports that the New York City Public School System goes through 153 million polystyrene trays annually.

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Many school districts in Southern California also use disposable foam trays.

CAW and Polystyrene:

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AB 2505, which will phase out the use of polyvinyl chloride packaging, will be heard in Assembly ESTM committee Tuesday.  PVC packaging is not recycled, contaminates the PET recycling stream and has a high incidence rate of heavy metal and phthalate contamination.

In related news, the New York Times reported that hospitals are working to phase out the use of PVC.  Susan Moran writes that hospitals have been leading the campaign to require vendors to switch to non-PVC alternatives:

"A few years ago, some Kaiser managers grew alarmed by studies showing that a plastic used in many supplies — polyvinyl chloride, or PVC — turns to chlorinated dioxin, a toxin, when burned. Other studies showed that DEHP (diethylhexyl phthalate, a chemical that makes PVC malleable), can leach into the contents of intravenous bags, potentially causing reproductive problems in male babies.So the team summoned experts to identify hospital products containing hazardous ingredients. Soon after, a Kaiser sourcing manager called suppliers to see if they could come up with safe and functional PVC-free alternatives for carpets, medical gloves and other supplies."

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CAW and PVC:

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Major League Baseball has team up with the Natural Resources Defense Council to green up their game, writes Jorge Ortiz of USA Today. Among the options MLB is considering: composting food stadium food waste instead of landfilling it and switching to compostable plastic cups.

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CAW and Zero Waste:

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