San Francisco OKs Toughest Recycling Law in US

[babylonsister]

San Francisco OKs Toughest Recycling Law in US

by John Coté


Throwing orange peels, coffee grounds and grease-stained pizza boxes in the trash will be against the law in San Francisco, and could even lead to a fine.


(flickr photo by frankfarm)

The Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 Tuesday to approve Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposal for the most comprehensive mandatory composting and recycling law in the country. It's an aggressive push to cut greenhouse gas emissions and have the city sending nothing to landfills or incinerators by 2020.

"San Francisco has the best recycling and composting programs in the nation," Newsom said, praising the board's vote on a plan that some residents had decried as heavy-handed and impractical. "We can build on our success."

The ordinance is expected to take effect this fall.

The legislation calls for every residence and business in the city to have three separate color-coded bins for waste: blue for recycling, green for compost and black for trash.

Failing to properly sort your refuse could result in a fine after several warnings, but Newsom and other officials say fines will only be levied in the most egregious cases.

Fines for almost all residential customers and many small businesses - anyone who generates less than a cubic yard of refuse a week - are initially capped at $100. Businesses that don't have proper bins face escalating fines up to $500.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/10-7

[tigereye]

1. it would be great to have a city run composting bin.. that's very cool

[Cant trust em]

2. But I love throwing grease-stained pizza boxes in the trash.

=(

I'm just kidding. Composting is awesome! They even brought me a little green compost box to put in my kitchen.

[kestrel91316]

3. Recyclers don't WANT grease-stained paper products of any kind, sadly.

We have the blue bins here for city pickup - clean paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic (I think just if it has the triangle thingie). The green bins for yard waste go to compost but they don't want greasy cardboard either.

[babylonsister]

6. We don't even have to separate our trash and are not

encouraged to do so. One day we'll catch up hopefully.

[Romulox]

4. Is it even clear that universal recycling is a net energy saver? nt

[marmar]

5. Yet another reason to love San Francisco.....

.... it's always years ahead of the rest of the country on most issues.