Recycling rule changes mean more goes into S.F.’s blue bins
Juice boxes, ice cream cartons, bagged bubble wrap and coffee cups — throw in the plastic lid and cardboard sleeve — are now welcome in recycling bins throughout San Francisco.
The city’s Department of the Environment announced the change Thursday, characterizing it as the most significant advance of San Francisco’s threebin system since its genesis in 2000.
“We’ve never been closer to eliminating our need for that black (trash) bin,” said Debbie Raphael, the department’s director, speaking at a news conference furnished with display tables showing off the new recyclable goods. Fittingly, the microphones and loudspeakers at the conference were hooked up to a bicycle-powered generator.
San Francisco’s long-standing waste hauler, Recology, test-ran the new recycling program for months along several routes in the Sunset District before the citywide rollout. Sunset
residents were given smaller, 16-gallon trash bins and larger, 64-gallon recycling bins, and Recology redoubled its efforts to educate people about what goes where.
Over the next two years, Recology will gradually switch the bin configuration at homes throughout the city.
“I have to admit, every week it’s a household conversation . ... ‘What are we allowed to put in?’ ” said Supervisor Katy Tang, who represents the Sunset and spoke at the news conference.
Under the new rules, San Franciscans can recycle fabric and soft plastics, including soup containers and newspaper bags. Pet poop, sanitary pads, used razors and toothpaste tubes should still go in the landfill.
San Francisco has the most comprehensive composting and recycling program in the country, Raphael said. Even so, the city still has a long
“I have to admit, every week it’s a household conversation . ... ‘What are we allowed to put in’ (the blue bin)? ” Katy Tang, San Francisco supervisor
way to go to reach its goal of zero waste by 2020.
And recycling alone won’t do the trick, Tang said. She urged residents to be more conscientious about how much they buy and throw away.
“We all know the minimalist movement is really hip right now,” Tang said, noting she’s tried to adopt a leaner lifestyle by bringing her own mug to coffee shops, refusing plastic utensils at restaurants and purchasing higher-quality, more durable clothing.
Changing consumer habits is an ongoing challenge for city officials, and for Recology.
The company recently switched the composition of its fleet, consolidating trash and compost in dual-chamber trucks, and devoting individual trucks to recyclables. The change was prompted, in part, by a reduction in garbage, but it also helped accommodate a surge of recyclable plastics and cardboard boxes — the detritus of a culture that’s increasingly focused on convenience and delivery.
Then there’s the problem of getting everyone to follow the bin instructions, which Supervisor London Breed lightheartedly acknowledged at the gathering.
“Yes, we know you probably already put your entire coffee cup” in the blue bin, she said. “Well, now you can do so with the assurance that it will actually be recycled.”