San Francisco to Toughen a Strict Recycling Law – and a New Bin for Compost.

green | June 12th, 2009 - 8:43 AM

A worker collected recyclables Wednesday in San Francisco. A new law will require trash to be separated among three bins.

A worker collected recyclables Wednesday in San Francisco. A new law will require trash to be separated among three bins.

Try your hand at shrinking the amount of new material going into landfill. Everyone should visit a landfill area. When you say you’re throwing something AWAY, it’s not really away. It’s that place called Landfill.

BERKELEY, Calif.  San Francisco, which already boasts one of the most aggressive recycling programs in the country, has raised the ante, vowing to levy fines of up to $1,000 on those unwilling to separate their Kung Pao chicken leftovers from their newspapers. Under a new ordinance, residents will be issued three mandatory garbage bins: a black one for trash, a blue one for recyclables and a green one for compost.

Garbage collectors who spot orange peels or aluminum soda cans in a black trash bin will leave a note reminding the owner how to separate his trash properly. Anyone found repeatedly flouting recycling protocol will be issued fines of $100 for small businesses and single-family homes and up to $1,000 for large businesses and multiunit buildings. The city has put a moratorium on all fines until 2011 while residents learn the ropes.

The city already composts 400 tons of food scraps a day, 90 percent of which goes to enriching the soil of vineyards in Napa and Sonoma Counties.

“People will embrace composting just like they embraced recycling,” said Mr. Ballard, who himself began composting kitchen scraps six months ago. “Here in San Francisco people are crazy about recycling. Composting is the next frontier.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/us/11recycle.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Thanks to NewYorkLocks for their tweet on Twitter informing us of this latest news.

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One Response to “San Francisco to Toughen a Strict Recycling Law – and a New Bin for Compost.”

  1. Betty Whitehurst says:

    This report was debated on Australian TV Channel 7′s Sunrise” this morning. Interviews and discussion between Robert Reid from San Francisco’s Sunset Scavenger Collection Service and Clean up Australia’s founder, Ian Keirnan was about fines versus more done to encourage the co-operation approach.

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