Mayor Signs the Mandatory Composting and Recycling Law
June 23, 2009 by greenie
Mayor Gavin "Greenster" Newsom chose the uber-green Ferry Plaza today as the backdrop to sign the new mandatory recycling and composting ordinance into law. The new rules require all San Francisco residential and commercial building owners to recycle AND compost or face possible fines. The low hanging fruit here are the downtown businesses, and the restaurants who generate tons of food waste every day.
Nuggets of wisdom from the press conference:
- Seattle has been legally requiring recycling for years.
- SF reached our current rate of 72% recycling without any mandatory laws at all.
- Sunset Scavenger aka NorCal Waste Systems has changed it's name to Recology!
- Restaurants can recycle at least 90% of their waste today.
- Fats, Oils, and Grease are picked up from restaurants and used to fuel city buses.
- Jared Blumenfeld can be kind of silly which is kind of adorable.
- The members of the Building Owners and Managers Association generate about 77% of the trash in San Francisco.
- SEIU 170, the janitor's union loves the legislation because it generates green jobs.
- Chamber of Commerce promotes this as a cost savings item for businesses.
- It is apparently possible to have Business, Land Owners and Unions at the same press conference supporting the same piece of legislation? Who knew.
The Full Press release:
Mayor Newsom Signs Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance
Measure is Key to Reaching 75% Landfill Diversion
06/23/09 - Mayor Gavin Newsom today signed mandatory recycling legislation requiring residential and commercial building owners to sign up for recycling and composting services.
Mayor Newsom’s ordinance will require all residences
and businesses in San Francisco to take advantage of the city’s
recycling and composting collection programs. While several other
cities require recycling service and participation, San Francisco is
the first city to require the collection of food scraps and other
compostables. Refuse collection has been mandatory since the 1930s.
"San Francisco has the best recycling and composting programs in the
nation, and we’ve already attained an impressive, and first in the
nation, 72 percent recycling rate because of them," said Mayor Newsom.
"I am pleased with the leadership the Board of Supervisors has
demonstrated on this important legislation. By collaborating with all
of our stakeholders, businesses, colleagues, and citizens, we can build
on our success and continue to lead the nation in recycling."
A comprehensive study conducted by the Department of the Environment
found that 36 percent of what San Francisco sends to landfills is
compostable, primarily food scraps, and 31 percent is recyclable—which
is mostly paper. There are facilities in the City and surrounding areas
that reuse, recycle, compost or otherwise process and market most
materials discarded in San Francisco, saving this material from
landfill and creating green-collar jobs.
Newsom said a primary goal of the mandatory recycling ordinance, which
was co-sponsored by Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi and Chris Daly, is to
get recycling and composting happening in buildings where it is not
currently provided.
According to the San Francisco Department of the Environment, if all of
the recyclable and compostable materials currently going to landfills
were captured by the city’s programs, San Francisco's recycling rate
would soar from 72 percent to 90 percent.
No fines are specified in the ordinance, but there is a cap of $100
established for residences and businesses that generate less than one
cubic yard of refuse per week, which is the equivalent of six 32-gallon
carts. Fines higher than $100 may still apply to businesses and to
landlords of large apartment buildings who refuse to offer recycling
and composting opportunities to tenants when feasible.
Newsom said that cities with mandatory recycling and fines, such as
Seattle, rarely assess such fines. He stressed that fines serve
primarily to heighten public awareness and encourage compliance.
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