San Fran Recycles 72%- page 1

Written by Gavin Newsom

Published on May 12th, 20093 CommentsPosted in efficiency, recycling

Editor’s note: This post is a contribution by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. See his last post on electric vehicle charging infrastructure or all of his previous posts here. A companion piece was also posted on RedGreenandBlue.org earlier today.

San Francisco is a city that knows how to recycle. We work hard to give new life to our paper, bottles, cans and other waste.
New statistics released today show we are keeping 72 percent of all discards from going to the landfill – up from 70 percent the year before.

That’s a big leap for one year. The most significant gains came from the recycling of material from building sites – due in large part to our 2006 mandatory Construction and Demolition Debris Recovery Ordinance.

By requiring builders to recycle debris from construction projects, we were able to divert tens of thousands of new tons of material away from the landfill. This ordinance is unique in that it doesn’t require deposits or bonds, making it small business-friendly and limiting the amount of bureaucracy needed to implement the program.

When it comes to our recycling programs, we’re always in the development phase. In order to meet our ambitious goal of 75 percent recycling by 2010 and zero waste by 2020, we are constantly looking for additional materials to recycle, and for emerging markets to make use of our recyclables.


» See also: Plant A Tree — Even Wall Street Agrees
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A few years back we developed—along with the company Recology, our partner in recycling — an innovative program to collect food scraps and turn them into organic soil. Local farms and vineyards now use this soil to grow crops, which are then sold back to consumers in San Francisco. We close the loop locally.

We’ve also recently started recycling almost all types of plastic. We take everything except plastic bags and Styrofoam. Most of it gets made into plastic molding and bender board.

Frisco installs solar

San Francisco, Calif., installing 7.8 megawatts of solar power on City facilities
August 2008

The Achievement
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has now installed solar photovoltaic systems on the following City facilities:

Moscone Convention Center
Pier 96
Wastewater treatment Plants (Southeast, Northpoint)
San Francisco International Airport

The City is also planning solar projects at the following sites:

Sunset Reservoir
Muni facilities
Libraries
City Hall


The Benefits
These completed solar systems now produce 2 megawatts, 2,620 megawatt-hours per year, and save 867 tons of C02 per year.
The planned solar systems will produce 5.8 megawatts, 7,297 megawatt-hours per year, and save 2,415 tons of C02 per year.
Totals: 7.8 megawatts, 9,918 megawatt-hours per year, and 3,282 tons CO2 per year saved

[Source: August 5, 2008 Summary Report: San Francisco Actions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions