I live in Boulder, CO, which as the article states has both curbside recycling and composting programs. I was skeptical at first, but I have to admit they work well. My regular trash has shrunk down to about a third of a large trash bag from filling it up each week. And I used to put all my yard clippings in with my regular trash (about two full bags each week), and that's also been diverted from landfills.
On the downside is cost, which is $49.50 per month. I need the largest capacity, for people using less they can get smaller containers with a reduced cost. The program is mandatory for everyone. And you have to sort and manage three different categories of stuff.
Over the past three years, the number of cities that offer curbside recycling has grown to 90. Growth? Definitely. A composting boom? Not quite. Nationwide, our recycling rate is only 33.8 percent and only 3 percent of that is from organic waste.
Still, cities are making a push to add composting to their waste management mix. Last fall, Portland became the latest city to adopt curbside composting, with San Francisco, Seattle, and Boulder, Colo. among the other cities with a composting program.
Over at Governing, Elizabeth Daigneau digs up some interesting statistics that might have more cities adding curbside composting.
The motivation behind these programs is simple: maxed-out landfills. Americans generate 250 million tons of garbage per year. Before San Francisco started its composting program in 1996, a city study found that more than one-third of all waste entering landfills could be composted instead. Today, between composting and recycling, the city diverts 78 percent of its waste from landfills. When Portland launched its composting program, it cut back its weekly garbage collection to every other week. Customers just weren’t producing as much trash.
There’s more:
- 1 million tons of organic waste have been collected since San Francisco started its composting program 15 years ago
- 600 tons of compost are collected everyday in San Francisco
- 30 percent less garbage was collected every month during Portland’s pilot composting program
But it’s not just a feel-good green gesture. Daigneau says that cities are actually finding it cheaper in the long run to compost because it keeps landfills from filling up as fast as they otherwise would.
Photo: glue&glitter/Flickr
Curbside Composting Added to a Major City: Is It Yours? [Governing]
