In San Francisco, Composting Is The Law
Curbside Pick-up for Compost Containers (Green)
I heard this public radio (NPR) news story on food composting in San Francisco a while and wanted to do a short write-up on it.
Composting is now mandatory in the city of San Francisco for residents, businesses and restaurants. Of particular interest are the recycling requirements for construction and demolition (requirements are listed towards the bottom of the page). Basically, all food scraps and construction materials must be disposed of properly and not be thrown away to take up space in landfills.
The city is work hard towards its goal of 75% waste diversion rate, which means 75% or more waste being recycled rather than being delivered to landfills. I previously mentioned the waste diversion rate in my write-up on StopWaste.org.
According to the news story, the city is not the first to implement mandatory composting – Seattle was the first city to do so; however, it did not require all residential units, businesses and restaurants to participate so in that San Francisco is the first.
On the surface recycling and composting may not seem related to civil engineering, but it does have relevance when considered as a part of waste management. More trash means more space required to store it – yes, that’s where the civil and environmental engineers come in to design and build more landfills.
Waste management is surprisingly political and technical in nature – cities and counties must develop policies to manage their trash, and the decomposition process involves various chemical reactions that generate greenhouse gases such as methane.
In conclusion, issues such as waste management, energy efficiency (and generation – think power plants) and water supply (delivery and storage) are technical issues that have immediate impact on our quality of living if not managed and designed for properly.
