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San Francisco starts mandatory composting this week
Becomes first city in the nation to require people to properly dispose of their organic garbage waste.
Mon, Oct 19 2009 at 3:25 PM
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Photo: ToastyKen/Flickr
While mandatory recycling laws are something starting to take shape in several cities across America, San Francisco is moving things a step further by requiring all residents to compost.
As MNN reported back in April, the new law -- which takes effect Oct. 21 -- requires every residence and business to have three separate color-coded bins for waste: blue for recycling, green for compost and black for trash. It's all part of an ambitious goal to reduce waste and have the city sending nothing to landfills or incinerators by 2020.
Fines won't be levied until early next year to allow homeowners to get used to the new sorting; but once they do take effect, people not participating can expect penalties of anywhere from $100 to $1,000 depending on warnings. "It's about a dialogue," Jared Blumenfeld, head of the Environment Department, told the SFGate. "As we've always promised, we are not going to start off fining people. ... Really our focus is to make sure tenants have the tools they need to recycle."
Food waste composting isn’t exactly new. Many of San Francisco’s residents and restaurants already send some 500 tons of food scraps to Recology's composting facility in Vacaville. The new law, however, will go a long way to encourage everyone to participate -- which should send Recology's numbers soaring, and make plenty of farmers, gardeners, and vintners very happy with the results.
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I AM NOT COMPOSTING!!! NO WAY NO HOW!!! IT AINT HAPPENING!! LIVE IN SF BUT I LIVE BY THE LIBERTIES OF MY NATIVE NEW HAMPSHIRE !!! 'LIVE FREE OR DIE " IF I WANT TO COMPOST I WILL- IF I DONT - IT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!! PERIOD !!! NOT INTO THE REPRESSIVE ROBOTIC REPRESIVE GOVNT BULL SHIT !!! NO ONE IS TELLING ME WHAT TO DO WIOTH THE WASTE IN THE PRIVACY OF MY OWN HOME !!! COMMIE FREAKS !! MOVE TO CUBA OR NORTH KOREA !!!
Really? This may be the most uneducated comment I've seen in a while.
Wow, this is a very good move by San Francisco..Being green is essential to reduce the need of throwing away. By composting, you can use the compost on your plants for healthy growth without chemicals..Regards, compost tumbler
Anyone out there feeling smug because you "recycle" - get over yourself. Recycling is terrible for the environment, at least the way we do it is. If you put a bottle in a recycle bin, it travels around the world, gets combined with other carcinogenic materials by economic slaves and travels back to you - in a less usable, less attractive product. Composting is really good, except for the fossil fuels used to pick it all up. We should compost and let it stay in our yard.
Actually, in Watervliet New York we have the "WOW" program, and the organic waste (that is later turned into compost) is picked up by trucks powered by natural gas produced by our organic waste.
I compost my own material as we don't have an option like this where I live (Winnipeg, MB). I would have no problem paying for this service either. Everyone should have to pay for the pollution they cause- large manufacturers and polluters first, though!
I agree with many of you here- this is important, its good more cities are doing this sort of thing, but it is a hard adjustment for the people. Everyone is talking about how easy this is, but I still don't understand how it actually works. The compost is picked up and handled by a company? For more on zero waste initiatives. . . http://www.newsy.com/videos/zero_waste_catches_on_worldwide
We are fortunate to live in a rural area where ALL kitchen and yard waste are composted. And SF should be praised not mocked by FOX News, because something like 40% if household waste is compostable which if anyone knows about compost, means making healthy soil. We literally produce no garbage that is sent to a land fill.
Just ignore them.
If you recycle in Indianapolis, let alone Indiana, you're the oddball. And I can only recycle PETE & HDPE plastics. When will this "World Class" city as civic leaders love to call Indpls, get with a world class attitude and begin recycling!
Seattle already has mandatory composting
Should responsible vermiculturalists have to pay (or be fined) for these barrels too? Transporting all this material to a few regional composters is a huge waste when many can deal with their organic waste in house.
My brother in Boulder CO has had a can like this for a while now - though it is smaller and these really seem too large, even if you add yard waste to it.
I used to live in Washington DC, which has a horrible rat problem, and I can't see this working there without feeding the rats. My counter top compost scrap collection is the cool metal pail doesn't smell, but it goes moldy after a few days and apparently then I shouldn't add it to the compost bin outside.
All well and good, but many people live on hillsides in SF. And, therefore, many people need to carry their garbage cans (now 3 of them) down large flights of stairs in order to reach the curb. These large cans, meant for rolling, are completely inappropriate for such use.
B
We have tons of rats in San Francisco. I'm wondering how all this handy food is going to affect the rat population!
Here in Los Angeles, we've had green barrels for several years now. Green is for yard clippings as well as some garbage.
We have black, blue and green barrels. And LA recently started charging us homeowners $35 a month for this service.
I'm curious. After the city has composted the resident's waste and it becomes a usable soil amendment, does the city give it back to their residents or SELL it back to the residents (or whomever)?
Thank you -- I included your recommendation in my post today about why Angelenos aren't using the green organic waste bins. I'm ordering my Max Air II today!
http://www.theredwhiteandgreen.com/2009/10/21/why-arent-angelenos-using-...
I live in LA (with the green yard waste/composting bins) and had been planning to get a countertop bucket this very morning, when I came across your post. Thank you so much for the link; I just ordered a bucket and a year's worth of BioBags! I so appreciate the tip! :)
Stop flushing personal hygiene items, they pollute our water. Utilize Sani SAC™ bags. They are made from polyethylene and an additive, which utilizes a unique ion prodegradant system that will cause a high level of controlled degradation in the finished product after a period of light exposure. The bags ultimately degrade into CO2, H2O and biomass, whether they wind up in a landfill or other avenue of the waste stream. The non-toxic bags are harmless to humans, animals or plant life.
I switched from tampons to the DivaCup a couple of years ago, and never looked back. It's a one-time purchase of around $20-25, lasts several years, completely comfortable (you don't even feel it), and you never again add to water system/landfill waste with one-use, disposable pads or tampons!
For the info: http://www.divacup.com/
For the cheapest ones I found online, $18.68!: http://www.webvitamins.com/SearchResults.aspx?searchText=diva+cup&x=0&y=0
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