Saturday, June 13, 2009

Recycling laws in San Francisco

Here's a recent article from the NY Times about recycling in San Fran.

8 comments:

Kendyll Goeman said...

San Francisco hopes to send zero waste to landfills in 2020. Instead of using a bag and tag system, as discussed in the discussion question, San Francisco enforces their rules through fines. I think it would be interesting to list all of the costs and benefits for this plan. This article presents many costs. The community is skeptical about trash snoopers, the government will lose revenue when providing every residence with three receptacles, and time will be wasted to leave notes on violator’s cans. However, if this plan is a success, it could lay the groundwork for other city’s developing recycling programs.

Drew Moxon said...

I'm actually kind of surprised that the city is using the compost in the Napa/Sonoma valley areas. I wonder how much of the costs they recoup by doing so? I also wonder what the C/B comparison is between taking it to those counties (I'm assuming they sell the compost to them) and using it as fuel to power the city of SF.

Brandon Green said...

"Composting is the next frontier" - what a great quote. Growing up, my grandparents always had a compost pile, which they used to fertilize their huge tomatoes. I could see how residents of a city would be apprehensive to start their own compost pile, but in wilmington or other semi-rural areas it is an amazing way to decrease waste, as well as put nutrients back into your yard to feed your flowers or other plants. For people who are already active in recycling, or just trying to reduce waste, composting might just be the next frontier in really making a difference.

Alyssa said...

San Francisco's new trash-recycling-compost plan is definitely inspiring! It would be interesting to see a cost-benefit analysis of the new implementation costs of the system. I'm sure much of the benefit would payback in the ROIs from reducing landfill wastes, costs, and selling the compost as fertilizers. I thought it was fascinating that the compost is being sold to vineyards, what a novel idea!

Abby Werling said...

San Fran is pretty serious about their recycling. I hope all those trash cans each house has to have are made out of recycled materials! To be honest I think that fines are an efficient way to get people to do what you want.It will be very interesting to see if the plan actually works. It also mentioned a moratorium on project until 2011 I do think this is a good way to get the community used to the idea, but i also wonder if people will listen if they know that they have a few years until the fines begin. I am also curious if the city's garbage men will actually be examining each and every bin. If this is the case it will take days to pick up all of the bins. Do many city's in the US pickup compost? I have not heard much about that.

James Marshall said...

I like the bill alot. If more percentage of trash is being then the C/B should swing in favor of recycling. I would realy like to know the poundage of compost collected a week and how much they sell it for. Fines are affective at getting the job done but I wonder if the next step should be to reward those who have almost no trash. From the opposite side though, is going through someones trash not a bit invasive? Illegal? Some people through away important documents, what if an unethical garbage man took your account number and stole your identity? I could be just paronod though.

MSchaefer said...

San Franciso is taking the step in the right direction to increase the pressure for everyone to recycle no matter if they want to or not because it is very important to keep everything out of the landfill that we can. It is great that the city provides the service of composting to people because must people don't compost and money can be earn by selling the compost to agriculture and other companies. America needs to stop thinking that we can just get new of everything and through everything out. We think that out of site is out of mind. During, World World 2 we re-used everything and through nothing out and we need to get to that because there reason to trash everything.

Steph Carroll said...

I have to say I would also be a little unnerved if I happened to see trash collecters sifting through each piece of my trash. It seems drastic, but I think this method provides enormous incentive for people to recycle and will ultimately benefit the entire city of San Francisco. How amazing would it be if all cities followed in their footsteps and the US could reduce all waste going to landfills?