San Francisco recycles 80% of its waste️

San Francisco recycles 80% of its waste through the "Zero Waste" program. ️ (via Brut nature)

Transcript

00:00In San Francisco, we have a goal of zero waste by 2020.

00:11Zero waste program is our comprehensive program to address every piece of the waste stream,

00:19from the smallest piece to the most dangerous piece like paint or chemicals,

00:25but also things like food, things like construction and demolition. From the large buildings,

00:30we are getting a very high degree of recovery. We are collecting over 700 tons a day of material

00:39that's organic that can go back onto the soil to grow more food. This has been a very unique

00:46program. We're the largest in the United States and probably the largest in the world. We have

00:51research from UC Berkeley that proves that if we take our food scraps and make compost and

00:58put it on the ground, we can take enough carbon out of the atmosphere to counterbalance the

01:04amount of GHGs we're putting into the atmosphere through fossil fuel use. That gives us better food

01:09too. It gives us better wine. It gives us better vegetables. This is crazy for us not to do it,

01:14to recognize that we have a circular solution to the dramatic problem that we face.

01:33We have begun to actually put a fine on people, to charge people when they do it wrong. The fine

01:40is $100. It can go up to $1,000 a day. We are starting low and we give people many warnings

01:47before we hit them with the real stick. In San Francisco, much of the United States,

01:51we pay for the waste that we throw out. It's not part of your taxes. You actually pay separately

01:56if you throw things away. There's an advantage if you don't throw it away. If you recycle it,

02:02if you compost it, if you reuse it, each of those is less expensive, so people save money.

02:09We have a ban on plastic water bottles in city institutions, city buildings,

02:24and on city streets. We took an approach to ban plastic bags from use in stores for supermarkets.

02:32Now the whole state of California has banned plastic bags at supermarkets. Just this past

02:39week in San Francisco, we introduced legislation to ban plastic straws and single-use plastics.

02:46Our ambition is to work in partnership with other cities and other political leaders and other

02:52nations to really make a world that is one that has more than enough resources for the people who

03:00are here that recognize that everything we're doing should be a resource. This is the symbiotic

03:06economy. Each aspect of what we do becomes a benefit to another part of the system.

03:12Again, think about the natural world. There's no dead ends in the natural world. Each thing

03:18turns into something for something else. Why do humans think we are different than all the

03:24other animals on the planet? We must start to act in this way.