San Francisco enacts first mandatory composting law in U.S.
San Francisco to rest of U.S.: Step up!: San Francisco's incredibly progressive mayor, Gavin Newsom, has just signed what he calls "the most comprehensive recycling and composting legislation in the country and the first to require residents and businesses to compost food scraps." San Francisco is already keeping 72 percent of recyclable material out of the landfill, sez the mayor (aka Toothsome Newsom), but still half a million tons of garbage each year could have been recycled or turned to compost. The city aims to increase the more than 400 tons of food scraps and other compostable discards it turns into high-grade organic compost every day. (GreenBiz.com) We wish nearby Oakland, which does offer municipal composting, would follow suit.
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Comments
By Walter Jeffries on June 23rd, 2009 at 4:52 pm
This is interesting that SF is making composting mandatory. Just last month I had read elsewhere that California bans the composting of wastes from slaughterhouses and butcher shops. Composting is the absolutely best way of handling the offal, wash water and blood if it is not otherwise sale-able (which it can be). Many states not only allow but actually actively encourage farms and processors to compost, returning the valuable nutrients to the soil. Perhaps SF will lead the way in convincing California to catch up with backwards 3rd world states like Vermont... :)
By Beth on June 24th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Composting has been mandatory for Seattle residents for several months. I'm not sure about businesses, though.