[EQAB-list] San Francisco is MANDATING separation of recyclables and compostables

[Robert G Kennedy III, PE]

The City of Guelph, Ontario (near Toronto) has a similar tricolor  
system, but in plastic bags, not rolling bins. They are Clear - Blue -  
Green.

Green is for anything compostable - paper, leaves, food scraps, etc.

Blue is for all other recyclables, single-stream like we have now.

Clear is for true garbage, but visual inspection is easy while  
contents remain sealed. If the haulers spot a aluminum can or  
something like that in the clear bag, they simply don't pick it up.

Bags are a problem where you have a lot of varmints, but giant rolling  
bins are problematic in urban settings, especially expensive  
space-constrained cities like SanFran.

I'm not down with the draconian busybodies out in 'Frisco, and I don't  
think your average Tennessean would tolerate it. I note S.F. has 72%  
diversion already - *most* impressive. But it also shows how much  
progresively harder than Nth degree of recycling is. One must always  
keep entropy in mind as it relates to that old rule about waste:
"You can't get anything clean without getting something else dirty;
however, you can get a lot of things dirty without getting anything clean."

-- 
Robert G Kennedy III, PE
www.ultimax.com


Quoting "Ellen Smith <smithellen at comcast.net>" <smithellen at comcast.net>:

> Interesting contrast with the situation here -- but likely to be in  
> our future, too.
>
> -- Ellen
>
>
> The New York Times
> June 11, 2009 5:14 AM
> --------------------------------------
>
> US: San Francisco to Toughen a Strict Recycling Law By MALIA WOLLAN In a
> bid to send zero waste to landfills by 2020, the city has passed new
> recycling and composting requirements.
>
> Full Story:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/us/11recycle.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
>
>
> NYTimes.com
> 620 Eighth Ave.
> New York, N.Y. 10018
>
> Copyright 2009 | The New York Times Company
>
>
>