feature

By Robert Reed

Apartment buildings in San Francisco are following the lead of city homes and restaurants by signing up to participate in the food scrap compost collection program.

Almost everyone in San Francisco recycles bottles, cans and paper by placing them together in the blue recycling carts serviced by Sunset Scavenger and Golden Gate Disposal & Recycling companies. The green cart program provides a way for residents and businesses in the city to take another big step in the quest to further reduce the amount of waste material sent to landfills.

By participating in both recycling (blue cart) program and the compost collection (green cart) program, many homes and restaurants in San Francisco have made great progress in reducing the amount of waste they send to landfills. For example, Scoma’s restaurant in Fisherman’s Wharf recycles and composts approximately 90% of their waste.

More than 2,100 San Francisco restaurants and 80,000 city homes already participate in the green cart program. Last fall, the city asked Sunset and Golden Gate to promote the compost collection program to apartment buildings with four or more units. The call to bring apartment buildings into the program is part of the city’s effort to divert 75% of the waste generated in San Francisco into reuse and recycling programs by 2010.

All food scraps, yard trimmings and soiled paper should go in the green carts. Food scraps include kitchen trimmings from the preparation of meals, and plate scrapings, such as uneaten broccoli. Yard trimmings include plants and flowers. Soiled paper includes used paper-derived towels, napkins, cups, plates and take-out containers (including pizza boxes). Sunset and Golden Gate green cart collection is separate from other garbage and recycling.

Compostable materials collected from the green carts are transported to a modern composting facility and used as feedstock to produce a finished compost. This nutrient-rich soil amendment is applied to local vineyards and gives farmers a viable alternative to using chemical fertilizers.

By participating in municipal recycling and composting programs, people are helping to protect the environment. San Francisco’s green cart program is the largest urban compost collection program in the country and is being replicated in many cities and universities around the United States.

Seattle, Portland, St. Paul, Minnesota and New York City have studied San Francisco’s food scrap compost program and are beginning to copy it. UC Berkeley
and UC Davis already participate by separating food scraps from collection in university cafeterias.

San Francisco’s compost collection program provides a means for people living in the city to return nutrients to farms. It’s an important role reversal; historically, farms have served cities. For example, farmers often grow specific varieties of fruits and vegetables because they are popular with urban residents and restaurant chefs.

How to Get Started
Sunset and Golden Gate are encouraging apartment buildings to start the compost collection program. We are mailing letters to building managers and owners advising them about the compost program and how it works. The letters note that informational flyers are available as tools to help educate tenants about how to use the green carts. The letters also provide information about kitchen pails and compostable liner bags that residents can use to participate in the program. About a week after the letter arrives, we phone managers and owners who receive a garbage bill to see if they received the correspondence, ask if they want to start the program and answer any questions.

If building managers wish, Sunset and Golden Gate can send a letter to apartment tenants asking if they want to participate in the program. The letter also asks tenants for a volunteer who would be willing to serve as a recycling captain to help take responsibility for the green cart. This involves checking the cart to make sure it is used for compostables and not regular trash. Additionally, recycling captains may volunteer to wheel the green cart to the curb so that the building will not incur a key charge for inside service.

The compost collection program began as a pilot program in 1997 and was approved by the city as a formal program in 2001. Sunset and Golden Gate started promoting the program to apartment buildings in October 2007. By mid-December, over 30 apartment buildings had started the service. Sunset and Gold Gate are receiving increased calls from apartment tenants who want to participate in this program. We tell tenants that the request to start this service must come from the person who pays the garbage bill—the apartment building manager or owner. To sign up, call Sunset (330-1300) or Golden Gate (626-4000) and ask to set up green cart service for an apartment building.

Voluntary participation is strongly encouraged, and representatives from Sunset and Golden Gate will do everything possible to help make the program work in any building. “Tenants at buildings where this program is established are pleased that building management is taking new steps to create opportunities for everyone at the building to reduce landfill disposal. Many tenants say they have been waiting for their managers to agree to start the program,” comments Sean Davison, waste reduction specialist at Golden Gate Disposal.

Composting Facts
The green cart is available in different sizes and multiple collection carts can be provided for larger buildings. There is no additional cost to apartment buildings if their green cart is placed at the curb for regularly scheduled collection. (Carts must be stored out of the public way after they are serviced.) We collect compostable materials from the carts once a week. If building managers oversee multiple properties, we would be glad to set up service at all their buildings at one time. We are also available to speak at tenant meetings to explain how the program works.

Some people fear the carts may smell, but that is just a myth. Participants place their compostable materials in bags made from paper or cornstarch and either roll or tie the top shut. Then the closed bags go in the green cart. Paper milk cartons or ice cream containers represent another compostable container that can be used to hold scraps. After filling the paper carton with scraps, such as cantaloupe skins, just toss it in the green cart.

San Francisco is a leader in recycling among large cities in the United States. But together we can do far better. A city study found that 63% of the material residents and businesses throw in the garbage (black) carts could be recycled or composted. Reaching the city’s goal of diverting 75% of waste away from landfill disposal will require participation from residents and businesses across San Francisco. The city’s call for large apartment buildings to sign up for the compost collection program is an opportunity to further green your building by helping to reduce landfill disposal.

The program also helps reduce our city’s carbon footprint. Food scraps, soiled paper, yard trimmings and other perishable materials sent to a landfill will decay over 100 years. As perishable material breaks down, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas. Even a state-of-the-art gas collection system at a landfill will capture only approximately 50% of the methane. The remaining methane can escape into the atmosphere.

But Jepson Prairie Organics, sister company to Sunset and Golden Gate, has gotten very skilled at making carbon-rich compost. By employing modern composting techniques, Jepson is able to preserve much of the carbon in the finished compost. That carbon is then returned to the soil when the compost is applied to local vineyards.

To find out more about the food scrap compost program, go to SFRecycling.com, the combined website for Sunset and Golden Gate.

 

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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or SF Apartment Magazine. Robert Reed is the public relations manager at Sunset and Golden Gate, San Francisco’s recycling companies. Reed and the other employee-owners at Sunset and Golden Gate actively recycle and compost both at work and home. Copyright © 2008 by SF Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.