Recycling Our Way to a More Sustainable Future
Editor’s note: This post is a contribution by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. See his last post on electric vehicle charging infrastructure or all of his previous posts here. A companion piece was also posted on RedGreenandBlue.org earlier today.
San Francisco is a city that knows how to recycle. We work hard to give new life to our paper, bottles, cans and other waste.
New statistics released today show we are keeping 72 percent of all discards from going to the landfill – up from 70 percent the year before.
That’s a big leap for one year. The most significant gains came from the recycling of material from building sites – due in large part to our 2006 mandatory Construction and Demolition Debris Recovery Ordinance.
By requiring builders to recycle debris from construction projects, we were able to divert tens of thousands of new tons of material away from the landfill. This ordinance is unique in that it doesn’t require deposits or bonds, making it small business-friendly and limiting the amount of bureaucracy needed to implement the program.
When it comes to our recycling programs, we’re always in the development phase. In order to meet our ambitious goal of 75 percent recycling by 2010 and zero waste by 2020, we are constantly looking for additional materials to recycle, and for emerging markets to make use of our recyclables.
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A few years back we developed—along with the company Recology, our partner in recycling — an innovative program to collect food scraps and turn them into organic soil. Local farms and vineyards now use this soil to grow crops, which are then sold back to consumers in San Francisco. We close the loop locally.
We’ve also recently started recycling almost all types of plastic. We take everything except plastic bags and Styrofoam. Most of it gets made into plastic molding and bender board.
Good stuff. There are still some glaring obvious places where recycling could cover more ground so to speak.
Was in SFO yesterday looking intently to recycle my bottle of what had been orange juice. To my surprise no program was in place.
These areas of high traffic could up that percentile if equipped with recycling options. Thanks
What about all the garbage on the planes flying into SFO or any airport for that matter. None of the trash is recycled on planes… It is so easy just to collect the cans, plastic and paper.
Apparently airlines need to cut costs in other ways… no peanuts.
Great news. it’s with news like this that we can make a difference. The old Reduce Reuse Recycle message should be better promoted as a simple mean to a better planet.
I wish we had a mayor like Newsom promoting recycling. How about Chief Recycling Advocate in the Obama administration.
I thought SFO would actually be within San Bruno city limits, but it does have an SF address, so the recommendations on the SFO improvements are justified. That also makes me ask why they couldn’t put recycling bins on the BART trains (though they likely exist in the stations).
I wonder how much the sporting stadiums contribute to the recycling.
Actually, as I understand if from this article: 1.http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9249262 the waste is not collected separately ( “single stream” collection), but is separated mostly automatically at a facility dedicated only to waste separation. So there is no need for a specific container for bottles, and another for cans etc.
I’m impressed. I would never think that would be possible, have to give it to SF for achieving this goal. Is there a site to check out what the recycle rate is for NYC, Boston or anywhere else? It would be interesting to know how other cities rank.
@Jeff Berlin: In SF recyclables are culled out of trash so technically there’s no need for a separate “recycling” container–just put your bottle in the “trash”.
@Jeff — I was under the impression that SFO sorted trash and recyclables for you.
It doesn’t make much sense to do the recycling on planes, since space is at a premium. It would make more sense to do it at the airport.
Amazing. As a recent transplant from SF to Honolulu i miss all the great recycling opprotunities. Everyone needs to look to SF as an example.
Try getting all offices in UCSF to require recycling. There is a lot of waste that comes from the medical center and supporting offices within UCSF. All UC campuses should truly be green rather than claiming they are that way.