San Francisco on Track to Become Zero Waste City
Each year, Americans throw away about 250 million tons of garbage. That’s roughly four pounds per person per day.
You can find all manner of trash in a landfill, old bent music stands, plastic bags, and a lot of items that could have been recycled, like bottles and cardboard. Beyond the obvious blight they cause, landfills create environmental damage and emit harmful greenhouse gases. They are monuments to waste.
Those concerns have prompted San Francisco and a handful of other cities to aim for a once-unthinkable goal, zero waste.
San Francisco is trying to become the first city with zero waste. By requiring residents and businesses to separate compostable items such as food scraps, as well as recyclable items, NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels reports that the city has already reduced a huge amount of garbage from ending up in landfills.
In 2009, San Francisco became the first city in the country to require that residents and businesses alike separate from their trash compostable items, like food scraps, and recyclable goods, like paper, metals, and plastic, into separate bins.
And that has led to a big reduction in the amount of garbage headed to the landfill, according to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.
Watch San Francisco on Track to Become Zero Waste City on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
Hurray for S.F.!
Last summer I was in Germany with friends. We occupied a vacation home where we were strictly instructed in waste management. There were about 6 different containers dedicated to a specific “waste” or “recycle” bin. It wasn’t easy, but in Germany that is a MUST.
Now San Francisco leads the way to zero waste and it will take awhile before it takes a hold, but it’s a step into the right direction. I hope many other cities will follow the lead.
This is a good thing keep the waste off the streets and recycled and reused for the future!
This is awesome!
nice to hear that is the Zero Waste City i think it might be the one and only city of the world which is Zero Waste City.
that’s exciting. wish more cities did this! Europe is way ahead of us.
I’ll be honest. I wasn’t sure what it meant “zero waste” until I read this. This should be a no-brainer for everyone! I love the fact that separating our trash reduces the actual number of bags we take to the dump!
I wish more cities would offer recycling benefits. Where I live, we have to pay almost $30 a month just to get a recycle bin for our home. This cost deters many people from doing so. I pray that the “green” movement starts sweeping through the nation.