On June 10, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved what may be the toughest recycling law in the nation, adding mandatory composting of food scraps and biodegradables to its already acclaimed recycling program.
Beginning this fall, residences and businesses will be required to sort their refuse into three, color-coded containers: blue for recycled items, green for compost, and black for trash. The proposal, introduced by Mayor Gavin Newsom, is part of the city’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and, by 2020, send nothing to landfills or incinerators.
While many communities have mandatory recycling and some require separation of yard waste for composting, San Francisco is the first to add food waste to the composting stream.
Some critics raised concerns over potential trash scavenging, while others recoiled from what they saw as the city’s big-brother approach. Although violators will eventually be subject to fines, the city recognizes that the new practices will take a while to become routine and indicated it won’t be overly aggressive regarding enforcement. Officials noted that the city will not be hiring new trash inspectors and that collectors will not become “trash police.”
San Francisco currently diverts 72 percent of its waste collections away from landfills, the highest rate among all U.S. cities.
