Posted on 06/08/2009 12:17:14 PM PDT by reaganaut1
To recycle, or not to recycle? That may no longer be a matter of debate in San Francisco, where a new mandatory recycling and composting law is poised for approval.
The ordinance, which will be considered by the city’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, would require residential and commercial building owners to sign up for recycling and composting services. Fines of up to $500 would await those who refuse. There would also be penalties for those who put recyclable or compostable material in landfill-bound bins.
By its own estimation, San Francisco already has the highest recycling rate in the nation at 72 percent. But to reach its goals of 75 percent landfill diversion by 2010, and zero waste by 2020, officials believe more drastic measures are needed.
“We’ve gone as far as we can with the recycling programs we have,” said Jared Blumenfeld, the director of the city’s Department of the Environment, during a recent public hearing about the proposal.
According to city statistics, San Francisco residents and businesses sent 617,833 tons of waste to the landfill in 2007. More than 35 percent of it was compostable and about 30 percent was recyclable (mostly paper). If everything was properly sorted the city would have a 90 percent recycling rate, Mr. Blumenfeld asserted.
Some building owners have expressed concern the law will create “garbage police” who riffle trash bins to make sure every banana peel or soda can is in its proper place. Officials counter the main goal is to get owners of large buildings to sign up for services. (Only about 20 percent of the city’s bigger multi-tenant buildings have compost bins, according to the city).
“We do not dig through garbage cans,” said Robert Reed, a spokesman for Norcal Waste Systems, which picks up trash from city buildings.
(Excerpt) Read more at greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com ...
What’s next for the Republic of San Francisco? Recycling used condoms to make Protein shakes in rubber bottles? Freaking savages.....
Well, then what's the point to having a law if it's not going to be enforced? Liberals make my head hurt.
FWIW, my local community says that they don't police their recycle bins either. My bin was recently not picked up because I put a steel bedframe (steel recycles? Right??) in the can.
With scrap metal dealers stealing sewer grates left and right, I figured that a steel bedframe would be a "catch" for the recycling fools. Not so, I guess. I just moved it to the "trash" bin...no prob with pickup the next week.
The recycling myth persists despite simple economic analysis to refute it. School children including my daughters are indoctrinated with the myth that recycling is essentially a free good (more recycling of any item is good). Government agencies reinforce this view despite the substantial costs of recycling. Critical thinking and careful analysis has been replaced with indoctrination.
Most government mandated recycling is an environmental and economic loss. The government agencies and enviros inflate the benefits and hide the costs.
-PJ
On Planet Santa Cruz the landfill situation is just about the best thing about the County. They’re forcing major recycling and it turns out not to be so difficult. I take my trash to the landfill once a month, and as you enter you go to the recycle area and get rid of maybe a third of your trash. Then the actual “garbage” doesn’t cost as much to dump. They are getting pretty militant about it, but I am delighted to see such improvements with trash management. They’re even making electricity there. It’s a pretty slick operation.
our trash company a few years ago dropped recycling pick ups completely, after 2 weeks they had a brand new contract paying them millions of dollars to continue the program, they were losing around $10 million dollars annually from the the recycling plan. Now they make a profit at our expense.
Penn and Teller did a great “BS” show on this. Funny as all get out!
Last week I recycled a bunch of old water meters and 3 garbage cans full of flattened beer cans. Got almost $400!
Anyone on the Board have ties with these companies? Do any of them contribute to their election?
Inquiring minds, etc.
I think that there's a benefit to recycling metals - particularly aluminum, because the smelting process requires so much energy.
Everything else is artificially propped up.
Voluntary recycling of aluminin, tin, and other metals is a good idea. I cannot argue with voluntary recycling programs. I am not sure that curbside recycling of these materials is justified. Curbside recycling of other materials (particularly paper and plastics) is an economic and environmental loser.
Landfills are power plants (decomposing trash releases methane gas).
But it goes against the liberal ethos, so the concept won’t ever get off the ground.
turn them inside out and shake the ....k out of them.
Yep, exactly. The demand for recycled paper and plastic is completely artificial. Why get remanufactured, when new is cheaper, easier, and exactly what a company wants?
I once thought that if there was a simple way to separate the plastics, that would add to demand. It wouldn't be too difficult a process.
Then I did some homework and found out just how tiny demand is for recycled plastic. Mostly, recycled plastic isn't "clean", or can't be the correct color. That, as they say, was the end of that.
I still think that there might be some potential for recycling electronics. Lots of good stuff to be found there, particularly in the older equipment. However, it's so incredibly manpower intensive, that there's no money to be made. The system would need to be automated, and that's not a trivial proposition.
Another point is to separate recycling from proper disposal. Some items (such as lead acid batteries and medical wastes) are too dangerous to place in landfills. These items need special disposal. Plastic and paper do not fall into this category. Trees are a renewable resource so I do not understand the emphasis on paper recyclying. Plastics degrade very slowly but I do not think they contanimate landfills. Plastic is even more difficult to recycle than paper.
The left kwows certain things. Deviation is not tolerated. The indoctrination regarding recycling is almost complete. Few adults much less kids question it. Everyone seems to feel good recycling.
“zero waste by 2020”
Are they going to hold it until they can get to a rest roomin oakland?
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