‘Zero Waste’ might be the impossible dream, but San Francisco isn’t giving up on it
. But if you’re a city official, crafting a waste-disposal system that is financially and environmentally sustainable is a monumental challenge. What’s different about San Francisco is that it is continuing to push the boundary of what’s possible—leaning on a combination of high tech, behavior modification and sheer political will.
Curbside composting bins joined recycling bins in 2001, and composting and recycling became mandatory in 2009. Now, city residents and business actually compost more material than they recycle. The city has also regulated construction and demolition debris, diverting much of it from landfills through recycling and reuse.
So last year, the city’s new mayor, London Breed, reset the city’s ambitions. Instead of zero waste by 2020, she said the city will, by 2030, cut all waste it produces by 15 percent and reduce the waste it sends to landfills by 50 percent. Today, Recology’s transfer station on the city’s southeast edge shows how far San Francisco falls short of that zero-waste dream—as well as how it’s made progress other U.S. cities might envy.
One reason the pit is less full is visible in the next room: a composting annex built last year for $19 million. About 29 percent of the waste stream is made up of organic material. That’s what produces the compost pile that is about 12 feet high and probably 30 feet wide. Made up of about half leaves and sticks and half food scraps, it gives off very little odor, thanks to good sorting, the Bay Area’s mild temperatures, and the new facility’s odor-neutralizing system.
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