Boxing Out Composting

It should surprise no one that San Francisco leads the way in food composting. The city offers green bins that sends household and restaurant food waste and yard trimmings to Jepson Prarie Organics in Vacaville, Calif., where they are composted.

Combined with the regular, blue recycling cart and the black, garbage cart, participating San Francisco homes have three receptacles. In Oxford, England, where they are attempting to implement a similar food recycling program, food recycling would bring the per home total to seven bins! Given that glut, it’s not surprising that the scheme is encountering some obstacles.  

This comment, edited for brevity, makes a lot of sense to me:

THIS IS INSANITY. Another box? That could make 7 per property…All the plastic used to make these boxes could have made large bottle-bank style bins for every street (like mainland Europe has). Cheaper collection costs, and helps build a sense of community.

While it’s great that Oxford City Council will soon divert organics from landfills, it would be better served to follow San Francisco or nearby Cherwell’s lead. In a pilot program, Cherwell’s District Council will ask residents to follow the traditional model by including food scraps in their garden waste bins.

Regardless of how, it is high time Cherwell collect its food waste. At present, food comprises 45 percent of the English district’s landfill!

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