San Francisco’s waste management program is unique because they have an ambitious goal: no waste sent to a landfill.

Instead they want to “divert as much material that can be recycled or composted as possible.” The city has recycling and composting but their composting is unique — it includes food scraps. They’ll even take paper plates with food on it.

The city is an example to other cities and claims that they recycle up to 90% of what’s being thrown away.

They hope to reach their goal by 2020.

Part of that was getting buy in and passing a law to make composting mandatory. “The mandatory [composting] was a much bigger deal to pass, because that was a direct behavioral thing we were asking people to do. We went through a long stakeholder process, meeting with apartment associations, business associations, building manager associations, the chamber, to get their impact and support on how mandatory would work.”

They also put in economic incentives – businesses and people save money by recycling because the city charges them by volume of waste. The city claims it can save hundreds if not thousands per month.

There is also training. “From helping them to physically set up a program and providing stickers and signs and doing training of janitors, we have a whole team of people who do this training.”

The success is pretty amazing: “From the time that mandatory composting was passed in April last year, we’ve gone from 400 tons a day of compostables being collected to almost 600 tons. Within a year we saw an increase of about a quarter in the number of businesses participating.”

I wonder if we could implement this in our city…read more at http://www.grist.org/article/2010-10-12-the-city-that-said-no-to-garbage/

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Computers and other electronics are not good for the environment. They become outdated quickly and get thrown away, filling landfills with potentially dangerous materials. It costs consumers and government a lot of cash to deal with this problem. Which leads to the question: Should the manufacturer be required to take back the items?

If manufacturers were required to take back items, that would encourage them to build their products differently. The green group Electronics TakeBack Coalition thinks companies should have to take back their electronics. Their Electronics Company Recycling Report Card, shows that Dell got the highest marks – a B. No one got an A.

Not only did companies not get A grades, most are failing. Companies like Sony, Canon, Brother and others got Fs even though some of them do take back products. Except they make it difficult and/or expensive to participate.

“But once that computer or printer gives out, take the time to check if the manufacturer offers a recycling program. If it’s practical enough, use it. If not, I suggest letting the manufacturer know you’re unhappy with its nonexistent or difficult-to-use take-back program, and that you’re taking your future business elsewhere.”

It is the manufacturers responsibility to take back their products? Should they have to pay to advertise and improve their systems to make it easy to participate? But that also probably means paying more for those products.I think that’s good because it’s closer to the true cost of owning the product. However, consumers are not usually asked to foot this bill directly.

Otherwise we’d have to pay for recycling our used tires (into products like rubber mulch) and other costs we’re not paying now.

What do you think?

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A mayor in London has an idea to try to recycle and reuse things that would otherwise end up in the trash. If you’ve ever heard of the email group Freecycle, the idea is based on that concept. Basically you can offer things that you don’t want and pick up things others in the group give away. It’s completely free.

The ‘Reuse Network’ is a little different than Freecycle though. It connects people with charities and groups to repair or pass on donations. It will tap into sites like Freegle and Freecycle to collect items. They’ll then store, refurbish and sell “everything from furniture, books, carpets and bikes to cookers and fridges.”

The  mayor believes the effort can divert 1.7mn reusable household items from the landfill. “This will help slash the mountain of waste being sent unnecessarily to landfill and cut the heavy economic costs of doing so.”

Along with that there will be a “reuse hotline” and web site.

The rest of the plan will encourage more plastics and metal recycling as well as food and garden waste composting. We wish they would include increasing tire recycling by encouraging businesses and schools to use rubber mulch products.

Rather than a scheme as the article puts it, this is a good way to cut down on waste. Think it will work? Let’s watch to see.

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• Using Freecycle.org to Recycle Household Items (brighthub.com)
• The city that said no to garbage (grist.org)
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Recycling programs are responsible for 80,000 jobs in Pennsylvania. The state has 1,600 municipal recycling programs. So Governor Edward G. Rendell has signed a bill to support the state’s economy by keeping valuable recycling programs.

The programs give manufacturers in the state raw materials to work with. The programs are funded by a “tipping fee” of $2 per ton on all waste managed at municipal waste landfills and resource recovery facilities in the state. This adds over $35 million a year for  recycling program.

It also saves the state in disposal costs and creates revenue – something that states need in this economy. The recycling industry in Pennsylvania also has a yearly payroll of more than $2 billion.

There is also a $1.25 million transfer from the recycling fund to clean up tire piles. Tires could also be recycled into products like rubber mulch and landscaping products.

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