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Be careful where you throw your banana peel — you could be slapped with a $500 fine. An ordinance in San Francisco was overwhelmingly voted in last week ratified on June 25 by the mayor, which will give the city arguably the most progressive (and strict) recycling program in the country.
The new plan will require building tenants and city residents to separate waste into bins according to trash, recyclables, and food compost. Although San Francisco already boasts a nation-best 72 percent recycling rate, a recent study showed that 36 percent of the city’s landfill garbage is food waste, while 31 percent is paper. The new ordinance, which could go into effect 90 days after today’s authorization, is anticipated to increase recycling up to 75 percent, though some estimate as high as 90 percent. The city’s long-term goal is to have zero landfill garbage by 2020.
While several cities across the nation have mandatory recycling programs and optional composting, San Francisco is the first to initiate a mandatory food disposal system. Even though the city is already very recycle-friendly, it will not be an easy switch to the new rule. Currently, only 22 of the 10,000 large apartment buildings have composting bins; this is triple what it was last year. Scary fines are making residents paranoid about their garbage. Others fear that collecting food waste will lead to bad smells.
But Mayor Gavin Newsom has emphasized that the program will help bring recycling and composting to many buildings that don’t have already have it. Bad smelling compost will not be an issue, since the compost is from the same garbage as before only separated differently. And the steep fines, which can warrant a $500 fine for commercial buildings and $100 for residents, will only be levied to the least-abiding, repeat offenders. Newsom says there will not be any type of “garbage police” that will dig through garbage; the punishment is only to imply the importance of complying with the rules and to raise public awareness about composting. Though the chance is slim, if you do happen to get a compost citation, be sure to recycle the ticket afterwards!
