Thumbs Up San Francisco!

In case you haven't heard I wanted to share the great news that composting is now MANDATORY in San Francisco!! This is an incredible accomplishment! Similar to the Seattle law, which required only households to compost, the October 21st SF law requires every residence and business to have three separate color-coded bins for waste: blue for recycling, green for compost and black for trash.

I cannot imagine how the city is educating everyone on composting, however I did find details about what people can compost in their green carts and kitchen pails, in addition to this public awareness commercial:



San Francisco is definitely doing their part to reduce their carbon footprint--all their collection and transfer trucks run on alternative fuel (either liquefied natural gas or biodiesel). They may start fining people in the future for non-compliance as their goal, according to City Environmental Officer, Jared Blumenfeld is to have zero waste - no garbage - going to landfills by the year 2020. I hope that other cities (especially Boston) follow SF's example.

View a quick MSNBC report about how composting can go full-cycle to help local vineyards.

Learn more about SF's composting program:

• Article: San Francisco composting, recycling becomes law Wednesday
  
• San Francisco Environment Department: Composting
  

Also, I added a poll (in the right hand section) to get a feel for how many people are already composting in their homes. Unfortunately, I am not yet composting myself, but hope to purchase at least one kitchen composter by early 2010! Living in an apartment makes composting challenging, but not impossible!