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Should Composting Be Mandatory In US Cities?
Hugh Pickens writes "After San Francisco enacted the nation's strictest regulations on composting in 2009, the city has increased the amount of food scraps and plant cuttings it composts to more than 600 tons per day, more than any other city in North America, and recently celebrated the collection one million tons of organic materials. Other cities have been watching as Seattle passed a similar mandate in 2010 diverting about 90,000 tons of organic waste from landfills in the first year and New York City is trying to figure out how to implement this type of program for its 8 million residents. The impact is potentially huge in terms of reducing the load on landfills as a study by San Francisco's Department of Environment shows that more than one third of all waste entering landfills could be composted instead. 'We want to see composting be a standard for everybody,' says Michael Virga, executive director of the U.S. Composting Council. 'Urban, suburban, it doesn't really matter where you are.' Although composting initially costs more than land-filling, over the long-term, the benefits will outweigh the costs. 'We can reduce a large source of landfill-generated greenhouse gases, extend the life of our landfill, and generate a valuable resource for the community in the form of premium soil and mulch,' writes Shanon Boase. 'What's more, this industry generates additional jobs.'"
Silly question... if it is headed to a landfill, isn't it being 'composted' anyway? We are burying it, after all.
If it's a City service, then the costs are shared among the taxpayers, so the associated responsibilities are also shared. If you pay for your trash service independently, then you have a point.
In my town, you pay a base fee to cover the trucks coming around, and you also have to buy special town-issued trash bags (which are expensive), which covers the cost of processing the trash. Recycling is free. If you want to throw away your recyclables, then at least in my town, you do pay for it yourself. With the old tax-supported system, when you didn't recycle, I paid for it.
Come on, most american can't even dispose of their trash properly, asking them to compost would make their nose bleed.
That's what they said in my city. Then the city implemented an easy system, and most people, and I really mean most of them, now recycle habitually. Don't underestimate people. They might surprise you.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
Your rights end when you start crapping in my yard.
So, yes.
Industry dumping deadly chemicals, your Hummer, the crap that leads to the algee blooms in the ocean, all of it has a direct impact on me. And thus, yes, I and the rest of the world get to tell you to stop shitting in the nest.
Check your premises.
1) Using the reason of "cutting down on landfilling" for composting is a straw dog. There is no scarcity of land for landfills. That is a myth. 2) Eventually, the city where separating out the table scraps for composting becomes mandatory, will hire "trash police" whose sole duty is to check and fine people who do not comply with the rules. 3) Rules for what can be composted can be quite complicated and it is easy to violate the rules unknowingly. I lived in Germany there the rules (read:laws) varied from city to city. We had a battle with the landlord since he was fined for a violation he did not commit (one of the tennants violated the laws). She accused us, the "Americans", when it was someone else. 4) Special compostible plastic bags are usually required for recycling compostible material. These bags have limited strength and can burst if overloaded. They have a limited shelf life and if exposed to the sun can fall apart in your hands. And they are not cheap. 5) If it is economical and profitable, then let the private sector handle it. Otherwise, it's a waste of time and money.
IIRC some brand-new towns designed their sewer system and waste treatment plants to handle large quantities of food waste, and then required all houses to install dispose-alls in the sinks. (and banned dumping food waste into trash, I think). Dunno how successful they were, but I gotta say the concept is much neater, simpler, and more efficient than setting up a whole separate compostables pick-up system.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Really? Come on; how lazy can you get?
The city I live in started recycling pickup a month or so ago, I just put the recyclables list up on the fridge. Problem fucking solved.
If recycling made sense, companies would be paying me for the time I spend recycling. Since they don't, it clearly doesn't make sense.
If I remember correctly, there was a brief scandal when I lived in the UK when the newspapers discovered that councils were forcing people to separate 'recyclable' products into different bins, then loading them onto ships to be sent to China where they're dumped in holes in the ground because no-one actually wants any of that old crap.
"If recycling made sense, companies would be paying me for the time I spend recycling. Since they don't, it clearly doesn't make sense."
We had this discussion 30 years ago in Europe and it showed that having to pay for your waste by the kilo made enthusiastic recyclers, you just have to raise the price enough.
So in a sense you get paid if you recycle as much as you can.
In many areas around me, you have to purchase stickers to put on your trash cans, but recycling is free. In this way, you pay for what you put in a landfill, and don't pay for what you recycle - and this is suburban Chicago.
Every community built in the last 20 years in my city has an HOA.* All of them restrict composting. And, were the city not negotiating a bulk-rate for trash collection on our behalf (from a private service provider), I suspect that every HOA would do the same and mandate that its residents use it (at a higher rate since each one wouldn't be as strong in negotiation).
In the absence of government, private industry does a plenty good job stepping in with regulation. And costs don't really go down.
* And the older ones all cost prohibitively more due to location.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
Wait, the US government is stupid because you're too lazy to remember (or post a chart on your fridge) what #s are recyclable and what ones aren't?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Some areas (including mine) have gone to single-stream recycling. Throw everything that is recyclable in one bin, and the rest goes in the trash. Very easy. We usually have as much in recyclables every week as we do in the trash.