April 29, 2005

City to Host World Environment Day as it Surges Towards 75% Waste Diversion

By Jeremy Bates
Special to the Neighborhood Newswire

There’s a reason that on June, 1, San Francisco will become the first U.S. city to host the United Nations’ World Environment Day. Twelve actually.

The city’s dozen recycling programs are the envy of mayors across the country—and the globe—and are driving the city towards its voluntary goal of diverting 75 percent of its waste stream from landfills by 2010. After reaching the state-mandated 50 percent threshold in 2002, San Francisco now diverts 63 percent of its trash.

Reaching a 75 percent diversion rate will be no mean feat, given that the easiest elements to recycle, such as paper, bottles and cans, have already largely been addressed. To achieve this stretch goal the city—along with its progressive partner, Sunset Scavenger waste management company—must maximize the efficiency of its existing programs and create new recycling approaches and technologies.

To that end, San Francisco’s Department of the Environment (SF Environment) has drafted a Construction and Demolition Debris (C&D) Ordinance that would require contractors to recycle construction debris, most likely at Sunset Scavenger’s C&D Tunnel Avenue facility, which already sorts and processes 275 tons of metal, rock and wood every day. The proposed ordinance could come before the Building Inspection Commission in May, and if ultimately passed by Board of Supervisors, would take effect in 2006.

The commercial food scraps program, another cutting edge recycling effort, collects 300 tons of organic waste daily from restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, and produce and farmers markets. Bones, meat, veggies and even milk cartons are composted to form nitrogen-rich compost purchased by regional wineries, orchards, and farms. Following San Francisco’s lead, Los Angeles has adopted a similar program, and a number of cities, including New York, Seattle and Minneapolis/St. Paul are likewise looking to do so.

“We have some of the busiest restaurants in the country embracing the program and using one tiny trashcan for food scraps,” said Sunset Scavenger spokesperson Robert Reed. “Over 50 vineyards use the compost—they’re taking every bucket we can make—to improve soil structure in a very natural way. This gives them an alternative to using chemical fertilizers.

“But,” continued Reed, “we also have delis that aren’t recycling any food scraps at all. We need to better utilize our existing programs.”

SF Environment recently initiated a waste stream study, the findings of which will detail what types of waste are being landfilled and guide the city in bolstering its 12 existing recycling programs: residential three-cart (bottles, cans and paper); commercial compost collection; construction and debris; fibers; business multiple paper; cardboard; oil paint, used motor oil, household chemicals and cleaning products; bar and restaurant glass; bulky items; wood waste; and confidential document destruction/recycling.

This multi-pronged onslaught against waste has pushed the amount of trash landfilled back to the pre-dot-com boom levels of a decade ago, according to Kevin Drew, SF Environment Residential and Special Projects Recycling Coordinator. But Drew points out that consumption has been down since the dot-com bust. It’ll be more difficult to increase diversion as the economy continues to heal.

Sunset Scavenger latest idea is a futuristic food-scraps-to-energy program that would harvest electricity from organic waste. Achieving this scheme will likely take years, but San Francisco is already looking well beyond 2010. Indeed, the motivation behind such innovation is not meeting a mere 75-percent waste-diversion target in the next five years; but realizing a longer-term vision of one day reusing everything. When asked if this “zero-waste” concept was a reasonable goal, Drew answered promptly and emphatically: “No, it’s an unreasonable goal. But we’re shooting for it anyway.”