San Francisco headed for mandatory composting

June 28, 1:48 PMSF Sustainable Food ExaminerJeri Lynn Chandler

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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, right, signs a
mandatory recycling and composting ordinance on top
of a compostable collection bin at the Ferry Building in
San Francisco, Tuesday, June 23, 2009. Looking on at
left is executive chef Charles Phan of The Slanted Door
restaurant. Starting this fall, residents have to separate
trash, recyclables and compost, which includes
everything from food scraps to garden clippings.
(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Earlier this month the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the first mandatory composting ordinance in the country (San Franciscans Must Recycle and Compost -- or Else) and on June 23rd, S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom, with some fanfare, signed it into law. (S.F. Mayor Signs First Mandatory Composting Law in U.S. by Gavin Newsom) Now City residents and businesses must recycle and compost or face fines.

San Francisco has set itself the goal of sending no solid waste to landfills by 2020, with seventy-five percent diverted by 2010. The new law makes it easier for people not able to compost where they live to recycle those materials by requiring building owners to sign up for the City's existing composting and recycling programs. According to Newsom, San Francisco "recently conducted a waste-stream analysis and discovered that about two thirds of the garbage people throw away -- half a million tons each year -- could have been recycled or turned to compost. If we were able to capture everything, we’d be recycling 90 percent -- preventing additional waste material from going to the landfill, and creating hundreds of green-collar jobs." (source: greenbiz.com/blog)

Demand is high from farms and vineyards in the San Francisco foodshed for the compost already being generated from some 400 tons of compostables collected from about 1,800 San Francisco restaurants. (From farm to table and back again) Sold under the Jepson Prairie Organics label at twelve dollars a cubic yard, it sells out during peak spreading season. The new ordinance should help to close that gap between need and supply.

The environmental and financial benefits of mandatory composting are significant, and San Francisco's program is expected to be watched closely by other municipalities interested in diverting waste from landfills, reducing methane production and increasing carbon sequestration -- not to mention improving soils and boosting local food production.