Published on August 7th, 2009
It’s an odd week for fuel sources. On the heels of a Mountain Dew powered engine, UK supermarket Tesco is getting flack for turning meat into energy–yah, you read that right.
The food chain is burning 5,000 tons of inedible meat for fuel. The biomass processing is being handled by the Cheshire-based PDM Group. The meat-energy is then used to power UK homes via the National Grid.
In fact, Tesco says they dispose of enough old meat to power 600 homes a year! Read the rest of this entry »
Published on August 4th, 2009
Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc., which has already made a name for itself by partnering in a Hawaii program that recycles old fishing nets for energy, is at it again. The company has joined in the Fishing for Energy partnership with Covanta Energy, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the NOAA Marine Debris Program. Together, they will collect old or abandoned fishing nets and other gear at the Oregon coastal ports of Garibaldi and Newport, and send it to Covanta’s waste-to-energy plant. The goal: to help prevent oceanborne derelict fishing gear from harming marine life, and to start making a dent in the notorious Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
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Published on July 19th, 2009
Rubber sidewalks are all grown up. Once perceived mainly as a safe surface for playgrounds, rubber sidewalks have developed into a means of preserving urban trees, reducing stormwater runoff, recycling tires, and curbing greenhouse gas emissions. A company called Rubbersidewalks (what else?) began installing the modular units in 2002, and its rubber sidewalk products now appear in almost 100 cities across the country. Even the U.S. military is getting into the act. Plans are in the works to install rubber sidewalks at Coast Guard Island in Alameda, California, and they’re being promoted by the Pollution Prevention Program at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
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Published on July 17th, 2009
Last month, we launched our first iPhone app based on a city feed to help San Franciscans recycle 75 percent of the materials that would otherwise go to the landfill by 2010. Today, we are kicking off a new online effort (www.RecyclingMoments.org) to get us over this green goal line and help our city save resources, energy, and reduce pollution.
In San Francisco, we have led the country in creating ambitious yet achievable programs to help residents and businesses decrease the amount of waste going into our landfill. Our modern curbside program began back in the 80s with the crazy idea that people could recycle their newspapers.
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Published on June 23rd, 2009
Composting will prevent tons of material from going to the landfill, create healthy soil for our local farms and help us fight global warming.
Today at the Farmer’s Market in front of San Francisco’s iconic Ferry Building I am signing the nation’s first mandatory composting law. It’s the most comprehensive recycling and composting legislation in the country and the first to require residents and businesses to compost food scraps. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on June 15th, 2009
San Francisco created the “EcoFinder” iPhone App to help residents recycle and dispose of materials. The open data philosophy behind the app is Government 2.0 at work.
With the release today of San Francisco’s first iPhone app based on a City data feed, recycling just got much easier for our residents.
San Franciscans already lead the nation in recycling – in May we announced a 72% diversion rate of all materials going to the landfill – but we want to do more. Last week we passed the nation’s first mandatory recycling and composting laws. We’ve pledged to recycle 75% of the materials that would otherwise go to the landfill by 2010 and zero waste by 2020.
We will only reach these lofty goals together — with the help of all our residents. That’s why the City’s environment department (@SFEnvironment) has launched an iPhone version of the popular web-based EcoFinder tool.
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Published on June 11th, 2009
Skins vs. shirts, Army vs. Navy, Spy vs. Spy: now you can add San Francisco vs. Food Scraps to the all-star list of classic matchups. Not satisfied with its stunning recycling rate of 70%, the city of the future is on its way to requiring all residential and commercial building owners to sign up for recycling and composting services, including food scrap composting. This move could boost the city’s recycling rate to 90%. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors just passed the ordinance on a first reading today, and it will go back for a second reading and final vote next week.
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Published on May 12th, 2009
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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Published on March 3rd, 2009
Bokashi is a ramped-up, high-speed composting method first developed in Japan. What gives it the muscle that ordinary compost lacks? Think of the difference between wine and grape juice, and that’s the key to a fine bokashi.
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Published on January 10th, 2009
With both the Consumer Electronics Show and MacWorld occurring this past week, I thought it was time to take a look at what happens to most fancy new electronics once they’re not so new and fancy anymore. The other day, I spoke to Barbara Kyle, the National Coordinator of the Electronic TakeBack Coalition about the state of electronics recycling in the US.
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