2001 Trash Cutter Awards Program Case Studies

San Francisco Department of the Environment:
Best Organics Management Program

• Program Description
• Program Summary
• Costs
• Benefits
• Contact

Program Description

San Francisco’s organic materials, which include food residuals, food soiled paper, wax corrugated cardboard, yard trimmings, and wood, are managed and diverted from the landfill through a variety of programs. The city has developed partnerships with many different nonprofit entities, Norcal garbage and recycling companies, dairy farmers, and local schools and colleges. The San Francisco Recycling Program provided help with program planning and development, funding for equipment, outreach, and technical assistance for program implementation.

Program Summary

The city’s comprehensive organics diversion program includes:

1. Edible discarded produce and other food redistributed by the San Francisco Food Bank and prepared foods from restaurants redistributed by Food Runners.
2. Food processing waste (for example, brewery grains, tofu residuals) and inedible produce used by dairy farmers for cattle feed.
3. Bakery discards used to produce dry animal feed products.
4. Food service grease and meat collection for rendering.
5. Home, school, and university cafeteria on-site food scrap and yard trimming composting.
6. On-site city Recreation and Parks Department landscape debris for mulching and manure composting.
7. Clean wood used for composting or as biomass boiler fuel.
8. Source-separated, pre- and postconsumer food scraps, food soiled paper, waxed corrugated boxes, and plant/floral trimmings from schools, households, and a wide variety of commercial generators citywide composted into marketed products, some of which return to the city.

The Food Bank edible produce redistribution program was developed and initially funded in 1996 by a San Francisco Recycling Program (SFRP) grant that provided a dedicated truck and driver to collect daily from the San Francisco produce terminal companies. The SFRP provided follow-up grants over the next several years to help expand edible food recovery.

The commercial composting collection program was developed and piloted starting at the produce terminal later in 1996 through a working partnership between the city and Sunset Scavenger Company (SSC), the city’s permitted hauler. Since 1996 SFRP has contracted with a team to help provide on-site training, monitoring, and follow-up for businesses to assist participation. SFRP worked with SSC to develop an incentive rate structure, which provides a 25 percent discounted rate (from regular garbage rates) for compostables collected in the program. These actions have been instrumental in the success and expansion of the commercial composting program.

Over the last 12 years, the SFRP has worked closely with the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners as a contractor to develop and implement programs for home composting education (including free workshops, demonstration centers, and “rotline”), discount composting bin distribution, volunteer composting and gardening educator training program, and school composting programs.

The innovative program of residential food collection is part of the citywide 3 color-coded wheeled cart system. The “Fantastic 3” program combines the collection of residential single and multifamily households with small businesses. Participants are provided with three carts: for residents a 32-gallon green cart for compostables collection along with a 2-gallon kitchen pail for sorting food scraps; a 32-gallon blue cart for commingled recycling of all bottles, cans, and paper; and a 32-gallon black cart for trash that is not compostable or recyclable. The SFRP helped develop and fund outreach, methods, and materials. Program staff obtain contract assistance in collecting and evaluating program data, including surveying targeted households. Surveys have revealed high resident satisfaction, with 90 percent preferring the new 3-cart program to their old program.

Costs

All residential program costs are included in the fee residents pay for garbage collection. Specific program costs vary, and reliable data is not readily available for all the programs. However, it is apparent that all the programs combined cost less per ton than the comparable cost of landfilling, which was approximately $200 per ton total for collection, long haul, and tipping fees in the year 2000. At more than $300 per ton, the composting collection programs themselves were more costly than landfilling in 2000. However, the per-ton costs of composting collection are projected to decrease to less than $250 per ton by 2003 as the program becomes more efficient and is implemented citywide. Landfill costs are projected to increase to more than $300 per ton during the same period.

Benefits

Most businesses that are targeted by the city have joined the commercial composting program, with a majority diverting almost half or more of their waste. Some restaurants are diverting up to 95 percent of their waste as a result of their participation and realizing significant savings as well.

The home composting education program has reached many thousands of residents. More than 19,470 composting bins have been sold to date, including 1,708 bins in the year 2000. The SFRP has also funded innovative on-site demonstration in-vessel composting projects at local colleges and universities. The city’s recreation and parks department diverts virtually all of its landscaping waste and horse manure through grasscycling, mulching, and composting. The resulting products are used in city parks.

Diversion in 2000 included nearly 3,000 tons of edible food, more than 24,000 tons through animal feed (including rendering), more than 40,000 through mulching and composting, and approximately 1,000 tons per year of wood waste.

The neighborhoods with the “Fantastic 3” program have increased diversion by more than 90 percent from their previous 12-gallon blue bin program, with more than two-thirds of the increase due to adding the new composting collection. This program, along with the commercial composting program, is increasingly seen as a successful model that other communities can follow.

For Further Information Contact:

Organics Recycling Coordinator
11 Grove St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 554-3423