SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - San Franciscans looking for something to save this Earth Day can add some unexpected entries to the usual lists of threatened places and endangered species: disposable forks, frappuccino cups and take-out containers.

Norcal Waste Systems, The City’s waste pickup company, will start accepting virtually all types of plastic — except bags, film wrap, bubble-wrap and Styrofoam — for recycling in blue curbside bins on Earth Day, scheduled for April 22.

“This is great news,” Bayview resident Shane King said. “I tend to be random and throw about three-fourths of my plastic into the recycling and one-fourth into the garbage.”

King said he’s been “hip to recycling” since his mother taught him to recycle in the 1970s, but said he doesn’t understand the number-coded recycling system. He said he drops items in his blue bin that “feel” recyclable.

The company currently asks residents and businesses to check the obscure number codes molded into plastic cups and containers before tossing them into the blue curbside bins. It currently accepts plastic containers for recycling if marked with numbers 2, 4 or 5, such as margarine tubs, company spokesman Robert Reed said.

Other types of plastic containers that are placed in blue bins, such as see-through iced coffee cups, salsa containers and take-out boxes, are currently dumped by Norcal at the Altamont landfill, Reed said.

But that’s set to change next week.

“This opens the door to a lot of additional recycling,” Reed said.

The change is a meaningful one that could set a national example and help cut down on greenhouse gas emissions and plastic pollution, said Dan Jacobsen, a lobbyist at nonprofit Environment California. Jacobsen said it’s better to avoid plastic than recycle it.

Norcal sorts 4,200 tons of paper, glass and plastic every week at its Pier 96 facility and loads bails of recyclable items onto ships that carry the material to recyclers around the Pacific Rim, Reed said.

Norcal recently struck agreements with manufacturers willing to accept a new array of rigid plastics which will be chipped into flakes and pellets for use in such products as ski parkas, plastic lumber, recycling bins and plastic packaging, he said.

The different types of plastic are made from processed crude oil, said Nitash Balsara, a chemical engineering professor at UC Berkeley. He said plastic recycling is growing in importance as oil supplies diminish and grow more expensive.

jupton@examiner.com

Comments from Examiner Readers

9:56 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 28, 2008 re: "Greenbelt can continue preservation"

Examiner Reader said:
I guess when the salmon count is so low that wildlife agencies have to place a mandatory ban on fishing to replenish their numbers, and when the whales are about 10-15% thinner, it's a sign that the oceans are stressed out. Kudos to the state Supreme Court for protecting the ocean and giving our coasts protective areas to restore ecosystems and rejuvenate her marine life.

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4:23 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 23, 2008 re: "Dark skies for solar-training plan"

Examiner Reader said:
Policy issues related to the solar program need to be vetted before money is spent, McGoldrick told The Examiner in an e-mail. The supervisor characterized Solar City�s threat to abandon The City as �greenmail.� Oh man...can someone please get goldbricker McGoldrick to get a real life, hopefully one not in public service! Geeze if this guy ran the world we would be forever spitting in the wind.

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4:02 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 16, 2008 re: "Toss your plastics into recycling bins"

Examiner Reader said:
Next step: Wire Hangers!!! (Dry cleaners don't seem to want them back).

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12:41 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 14, 2008 re: "Toss your plastics into recycling bins"

Examiner Reader said:
I throw everything I can into the recycling bin and let them decide.

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10:23 AM MST on Thu., Apr. 3, 2008 re: "Maryland�s coastal grass continues to vanish"

Examiner Reader said:
i think the bicycle built for water is a dum story

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6:36 AM MST on Mon., Mar. 31, 2008 re: "It's a bicycle built for pure water, too"

Examiner Reader said:
how much will the bike cost?

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4:48 PM MST on Sat., Mar. 29, 2008 re: "The City gets dark tonight"

Examiner Reader said:
Good. Can't wait for the criminals to do a number on the City!

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5:39 AM MST on Wed., Jan. 9, 2008 re: "Gore preaches to global warming choir"

Examiner Reader said:
there are no heading on what each paragraph is about

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4:45 PM MST on Thu., Dec. 20, 2007 re: "S.F. green groups to receive more than $2M"

Bob said:
What concerns me isn't so much all this green stuff; (and green is just a buzz word for Corporate America to make big bucks)what is being done to animal species being wiped off the face of the earth? Polar bear, Rhinos (being slaughered for their horns); elephants, snow tigers, and the list goes on and on;

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3:43 PM MST on Thu., Dec. 20, 2007 re: "S.F. green groups to receive more than $2M"

Examiner Reader said:
all this green is a bunch of crap....i still burn wood, drive my car alone to work (better than some smelly bus or bart) do not recycle..thats what i pay those garbagemen for. i would rather use my firplace and wood than pay Pacific Grred and Extortion zny of their rip bills.

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9:21 PM MST on Wed., Nov. 28, 2007 re: "Audubon study sees local birds particularly threatened"

Another Examiner Reader said:
Sure nuclear power is "clean." Just ask the Chernobylites.

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1:56 PM MST on Thu., May. 24, 2007 re: "Experts: Light pollution growing environmental problem"

Examiner Reader said:
Thank you for this article. However it needs more development, especially in the area of light trespass onto down hill property. Full cut off on level ground is not full cut off on slopes. Also, motion detectors often activate when a person walks on his own property and is detected by the neighbor's poorly designed/installed system. Please consider this in the future.

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11:36 AM MST on Mon., May. 14, 2007 re: "Gore preaches to global warming choir"

Examiner Reader said:
Al Gore should provide more support for nuclear power. When you come to the realization that we have to STOP using fossil fuels, there is nothing else that can produce the huge amount of power that would be required to replace fossil fuels. Nuclear already provides 20% of our electric power. Nuclear power is as cheap or maybe cheaper than coal, especially when you compare 'clean coal' vs. nuclear. It is time we started replacing all of our coal fired power plants with nuclear.

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7:27 AM MST on Wed., May. 9, 2007 re: "Environmental advisers request study of county�s waste stream"

Sandy Wisner said:
Dear Kelsey, If you take 15% of one portion of a thing and 17% of another portion of the same thing, you will not get 32% of the whole. Depending on the size of the portions, you will have between 15 and 17 percent of the whole.

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