San Francisco Zero Waste program: a model for organic waste recycling
Bioplas Australia
San Francisco’s Zero Waste Program is delivering results that have been noticed by waste policymakers including the head of Zero Waste South Australia (ZWSA).
“San Francisco beats SA – it’s at 80% diversion now, aiming to go to 90%,” said Vaughan Levitzke, referring to San Francisco’s overall diversion from landfill. Specifically, organics diversion from commercial and municipal streams increased 50% within three years of the Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance being passed in 2009.
To implement an efficient household source separation of organics San Francisco decided to adopt compostable waste bags and liners and vented kitchen bins, in order to encourage citizens participation in the system.
San Francisco’s Zero Waste policy has a goal to achieve zero waste by 2020 where no material goes to landfill or “high temperature destruction”. It has introduced innovative policies to encourage participation in recycling, such as financial incentives for business.
In 2010–11, around 14 Mt of organic waste (excluding paper and cardboard and primary production wastes) were generated in Australia, of which 6.63 Mt (47%) were disposed of to landfill; 6.14 Mt (44%) were recycled; and 1.24 Mt (9%) were used in energy recovery.
Around 15% of the C&I waste sent to landfill was food waste.
Greater recycling of organic material will be required for cities to achieve high diversion from landfill rates, particularly in cases like San Francicso, where its Zero Waste policy includes the principle of “highest and best use”.
“That means we seek maximum source separation for highest quality and beneficial products, then we seek to process that material that is not source separated,” said Jack Macy, senior commercial zero waste coordinator at the county’s Department of the Environment.
“We are testing and evaluating technologies to best separate the trash stream for recovery. We have been testing anaerobic digestion for years including a program using selected commercial food scraps at the regional wastewater treatment plant. We do not support the burning or high temperature destruction of mixed waste.”