69% Makes Us #1
San Francisco as the #1 city in the country when it comes to waste management according to Sustainlane. We apparently diverted 69% of our total waste from city landfills through recycling, green waste and composting programs.
| Waste Management | |
| Top 10 | Bottom 10 |
| 1. San Francisco, CA | 41. Indianapolis, IN |
| 2. Long Beach, CA | 42. Dallas, TX |
| 3. New York, NY | 43. Denver, CO |
| 4. San Jose, CA | 44. Tulsa, OK |
| 4. Los Angeles, CA | 45. El Paso, TX |
| 4. Fresno, CA | 46. Oklahoma City, OK |
| 7. Portland, OR | 47. Albuquerque, NM |
| 8. Oakland, CA | 48. Colorado Springs, CO |
| 9. Honolulu, HI | 49. New Orleans, LA |
| 10. Chicago, IL | N/A. Virginia Beach, VA |
The top 6 cities all diverted more than 60% of their solid waste from landfills. But 60% is not enough! Among the cities with zero waste goals are San Francisco (of course), Austin, Fresno, Oakland, San Jose and Seattle.
San Francisco is ranked #2 in overall sustainability, just behind Portland and just above Seattle. Traffic and housing are pulling us down. Our "Metro Street Congestion" ranking is 45th out of 50 and our "Housing Affordability" ranking is dead last! While those are things we can and should be working on (think bike plan and affordable housing), we probably can't do much about our "Natural Disaster Risk" of 47.