Happy Mandatory Composting Day!
Wednesday marks the much anticipated (at least on this blog) debut of San Francisco’s non-elective composting program. All households and businesses must participate in the 3-bin system, one of which is a green cart for food scraps and other organics.
The preparations for this day have been rather feverish, recently, and it seems like the city is ready. The question is: are its citizens?
The legislation provides potential fines for noncompliance to give the program some teeth. Yet, there’s a moratorium on fines until at least July 2011 and even then they’ll be capped at $100 for households.
What do you make of this kind of enforced green behavior? Too heavy-handed and will prompt a backlash? Or necessary to keep the most food out of the landfill?
9 Comments
Hi Jonathan,
Last week, my son and the 5th grade classes at his school spent the week on Cape Cod at Natures Classroom. All their meals were prepared on site and the kids had a large buffet and salad bar to choose from. At the end of each meal, the kids weighed their food waste. the very first meal, they had 46 pounds of waste, by the end of the week, they were down to 11 pounds of waste per meal…and this is for 105 kids plus 13 chaperones. The children were amazed at how much they wasted and were very cognizant of the fact that they could go back for seconds if they really wanted more.
It was nice to see that they did that.
I think it’s great that SF will be composting! Once again, CA is leading the country in the right direction. I was in Korea and noticed that whenever we went to a restaurant they separated out food scraps from non-food waste. Often we cleared our own plates–carried them to a kitchen where they were separated in this way. I was told they compost and use food scraps to feed pigs. Also, all of the restaurants had water coolers and we were welome to use them to refill our water bottles. Another good idea.
Nancy and Cate–Isn’t it amazing how *simple* the enlightened way really is? Very little about reducing waste and properly disposing of it is new. But it makes so much sense.
Wow, I think it’s wonderful. I wish Phoenix would do like wise. Perhaps we can start a movement on our own here.
What about people who compost on-site?
Here in Portland, i’m very happy that we have a green rolly-bin composting option, but since i compost in my backyard, i have only set it out once (full of seedy weeds i didn’t want to propagate). It seems like enforcement would be a challenge, too: is it based on an expected average level of compostable waste production? So an underproducing household could potentially be penalized? That presents a real puzzle.
I like the idea of fines for households who don’t take the time to separate out their garbage/compostables/recycling, and I wish this sort of thinking would take root in LA.
I’m not entirely sure how the enforcement will work, and I don’t think the city knows, either. MY guess is that that’s part of why they’ve said they won’t fine anyone until July 2011.
I’m sure backyard composting would excuse you from rolling out a green bin. Has to, right?
SB, my gut says LA is no SF. But I hope I’m wrong!
It’s great! I wish we had the same thing. I live in an apartment and so far have not convinced the landlord to let me start a composting bin. But I’m continuing to work on it.
@Anne – I do vermicomposting in the enclosed porch of my Chicago apartment. In my last apartment, I kept the bin in the kitchen. Totally feasible!
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