San Francisco goes greener with country’s first compost law

Why is it illegal to toss out prescription pills, battered batteries and old oil, but not all the other crap that ends in the can? True, some items are especially dangerous to bury underground, but in reality nothing is good to throw away.

The progressive San Francisco Board of Supervisors took this message seriously by becoming the first city to force businesses and homeowners to recycle and compost.

Aggressive goals require aggressive steps, and San Francisco is attempting to eliminate landfill waste by 2020. So far, they’re not doing so hot. Sixty-seven percent of what the city sends to the landfill could have either been recycled or composted.

But things aren’t so bad in the Bay Area. San Francisco already composts 400 tons a day, which is used in local farms and vineyards.

“We can barely keep up with the demand,” Newsom wrote. “By requiring all residents and businesses to compost, we’ll increase the amount of ‘black gold’ available for sustainable regional agriculture and improve our environment.”

Some might ask, “Don’t scraps of food that end up in the dump just decompose anyway?” Unfortunately, no. Instead of becoming dirt, the stuff in landfills turns into methane, which is a greenhouse gas that leads to global warming.

Some municipalities are actually turning the methane in landfills into natural gas to fuel engines. But even then, the fumes end up in the atmosphere.

San Francisco has taken a bold step, but someday it will be considered just a part of the progression toward a sustainable future – just like well-insolated windows.

Composting has been around for thousands of years, but it’s taken a long time to bring it into urban areas and the mainstream. Once more cities catch on, more people will start to see the big picture food cycle: It grows, it’s eaten or thrown out and then it should end up back in the ground to provide nutrients for future crops.