San Francisco: coffee grounds in the trash will be illegal

[ravdin]

San Francisco OKs toughest recycling law in the U.S.

I throw out coffee grounds with the regular trash just about every day. I guess it's a matter of time before my antisocial, carbon dioxide emitting ways are also criminalized in Berkeley.

 

[dudalb]

San Francisco is like a beautiful woman with a lot of charm who is also often batcrap crazy.
You think with SF facing huge budget cuts in the wake of the State finiancial debacle,the city council would have better things to do. But I guess not.

 

[madurobob]

San Francisco is like a beautiful woman with a lot of charm who is also often batcrap crazy.
You think with SF facing huge budget cuts in the wake of the State finiancial debacle,the city council would have better things to do. But I guess not.

The article doesn't really touch on it, but a higher composting rate and lower landfill use rate surely saves money. Also, the fines are a new revenue stream

So, the City Council could argue that this new measure is fiscally appropriate as well as environmentally. It might be spit in the ocean in terms of impact, but at least directionally appropriate.

ETA: why did the opening sentence address pizza boxes when there is no mention of them in the rest of the story?

 

[fuelair]

I support composting and such, but I would not move to San Francisco on a bet due to too much law on PC.. (Though a 10 years guaranteed job at a million a year might ovecome my otherwise rational attitude on this.)

 

[The Nimble Pianist]

My God Oakland is looking more and more better each and every day.

So my throwing a damn orange peel in the trash warrants a fine, but the crack junkie who takes a crap in the street during the middle of the day doesn't?

This city is a joke.

 

[tomwaits]

San Francisco is like a beautiful woman with a lot of charm who is also often batcrap crazy.

A great analogy.

 

[TragicMonkey]

So my throwing a damn orange peel in the trash warrants a fine, but the crack junkie who takes a crap in the street during the middle of the day doesn't?

Unless he craps orange peels, in which case it's a prison sentence.

 

[Drudgewire]

San Francisco is like a beautiful woman with a lot of charm who is also often batcrap crazy.

Hopefully she at least bathes often, because at least SF Gate writer doesn't want her to wear perfume.

 

[The Nimble Pianist]

By the way, my buddy in the Outer Sunset (a district on the west side) lives in a building with a compost bin. Thing is, it gets picked up only once a month! The ground level stinks worse than the Tenderloin and they have a huge rat problem.

Is this what I get to look forward to now?

 

[ravdin]

San Francisco is like a beautiful woman with a lot of charm who is also often batcrap crazy.

That is an excellent simile! It explains why even though I know how crazy it is here, I continue to stick around and take the punishment.

 

[CelticRose]

I'm not getting why people are complaining about this.

So you have to put your compostable waste in a different bin. Big deal.

 

[CynicalSkeptic]

This reminds me of then Penn & Teller BS! episode on recycling.

 

[BenBurch]

SF is a very SMALL city, BTW. Large urban area, but SF is a tiny part of it.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

What incredibly funny responses.

The effort to sort your garbage is so minimal as to be close to zero.

Where I live (just North of Toronto) I sort for:

• compostables (into the green bin),
• recyclables (into the blue bin) that includes most paper products, all plastics (except for foam and films) and all metals (cans and such) and all glass (except for window glass),
• extra newspapers and other paper (bundled and tied with twine,
• cardboard boxes (flattened, cut into pieces less than 2 feet square and bailed),
• yard waste in a large brown paper bag,
• tree branches cut into two foot lengths and bundled with twine,
• shredded paper (from my paper shredder) in a clear plastic polythene bag,
• what ever is left in a green polythene bag,
• non-electronic furniture (now includes small TVs)

I take polythene foam to the municipal recycling depot and electronics (computers, phones and the like) to regional recycling depot.

Payback. The headline in the local paper, "0% Municipal Tax Increase this Year".

Americans are a curious lot.

 

[IMST]

Oh noes! They're taking our freedom to choose which bin to put food waste in! Time for a revolution.
Or just, you know, put your food scraps in the compost bin.
And the odds they enforce this aggressively are not high. Seattle mandates recycling and I've never heard of anyone complaining about enforcement.
Finally, to the pooping in the street analogy, I bet you could fine an ordinance prohibiting this as well.

 

[dudalb]

By the way, my buddy in the Outer Sunset (a district on the west side) lives in a building with a compost bin. Thing is, it gets picked up only once a month! The ground level stinks worse than the Tenderloin and they have a huge rat problem.

Is this what I get to look forward to now?

Let's pass a feel good "Green" law while ignoring basic city services like picking up garbage. So much for the old slogan for SF, "The City That Knows How".
And I have noticied that the city seems to be getting dirtier each time I visit it...including some of the upscale shopping districts.

 

[The Nimble Pianist]

I'm not getting why people are complaining about this.

So you have to put your compostable waste in a different bin. Big deal.

More to do with this being another one of Gavin's stupid projects that in a month or two he's going to completely give up on for another stupid project while completely ignoring some of the city's more pressing matters (like homelessness, drug use, and our public transportation).

 

[dudalb]

That is an excellent simile! It explains why even though I know how crazy it is here, I continue to stick around and take the punishment.

I was raised in the South Bay, and have lived, except for four years in LA in Sacramento since the age of 22, and although I love San Francisco and the East Bay to shreds, I would not care to live there because the craziness might be catching.

 

[dudalb]

Oh noes! They're taking our freedom to choose which bin to put food waste in! Time for a revolution.
Or just, you know, put your food scraps in the compost bin.
And the odds they enforce this aggressively are not high. Seattle mandates recycling and I've never heard of anyone complaining about enforcement.
Finally, to the pooping in the street analogy, I bet you could fine an ordinance prohibiting this as well.

You have to understand the way that Basic serviced are being neglected in SF in favor of idealistic but unrealistic crap like this to understand the reaction.
Recycing is good, but , as someone pointed out, if you have irregular garbage pickups..a constant problem in SF, it is an exercise in futility.

 

[The Nimble Pianist]

Hey I guess on the positive side, the city could hire those already dumpster diving as enforcers.