Top Composting U.S. City
This city has the ambitious goal of keeping 75 percent of its trash out of landfills by the year 2010 -- and reaching the point of zero waste by 2020. So which city takes top honor home? Drumroll please … the top composting U.S. city is San Francisco! The city promotes composting by featuring the largest compost collection program in the United States [source: Mullane].
Just one of several environmentally-friendly initiatives, composting is an attractive way to reduce a city's waste because the byproduct can be valuable and useful. Hundreds of thousands of San Franciscans, as well as local restaurants and food-related establishments, contribute more than 300 tons of organic garbage each day -- that's more than 100,000 tons per year. This waste travels to nearby modern composting facilities for treatment [source: SFEnvironment]. Once that waste is turned into compost, agricultural operations such as local vineyards will pay big bucks for the nutrient-dense material.
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The Golden Gate Bridge is destined to become the landmark of a trash-free haven by 2020.
But San Franciscans aren't stopping to revel in their victory yet. There are several objectives the city is trying to meet in order to stay on track for the 2010 goal and beyond. Issues such as increasing recycling during large, public events are part of the city's goals, along with promoting more reuse and less consumption. Community outreach is another big part of the city's efforts, with information campaigns to bring new Bay Area residents into the loop, as well as other unreached markets. The city's overall environmental plan, spearheaded by Mayor Gavin Newsom, includes many other facets. Grants, subsidies and other incentive programs are offered for green activities such as installing solar panels, planting trees, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and car sharing.
The
city of Boston, one of several runners-up in
the category of top composting city, has plans to build a state-of-the-art, indoor composting
facility -- nothing comparable exists in a major U.S. city. Early exploration and
planning efforts are focusing on a facility that could handle between 75 and
150 tons of organic waste per day [source: Glascock].
Not only would the facility decompose yard waste, food scraps and other organic waste; it would also harness the gas that escapes in the process to power as many as 1,500 Boston homes [source: Ryan]. The facility would feature a rooftop greenhouse, sustained by the energy generated by the composting process. |
Now that we've learned about one city's efforts to change the way their citizens look at a garbage can, follow the links on the next page to read about related information.
