25 Years: Recology Pioneered Pioneers Composting in San Francisco in the '90s

In the early ‘90s, San Francisco commissioned an engineering study to analyze the material it was sending to landfill. The report showed much of the material could have been composted instead. So, in 1996 the City asked Recology to see if we could collect food scraps separately from other trash and test whether San Franciscans would participate in a curbside composting collection program.

Industry magazines quoted managers at other trash companies who said collecting food scraps separately had never been tried in this country and would never work.

But San Francisco residents, businesses, city officials, and Recology employee-owners fully embraced curbside collection for food scraps and yard trimmings. In the process, we reinvented the way our city manages discarded material, and we demonstrated that participating in curbside composting benefits the environment in multiple ways.

The program has kept 2.5 million tons of food scraps and yard cuttings out of the landfill. We turned that material into finished compost that helps local farms save water and grow higher quality fruits, nuts, and vegetables.

The program also gives everyone in the city a way to help turn farms into carbon sinks. That’s because farms use SF compost to grow mustard and other cover crops and blossoming trees that pull carbon out of the atmosphere and sequester it deep in the soil, where it belongs.

More than 100 cities and universities have started to replicate the San Francisco program. Urban composting collection participants include UC Berkeley and Stanford University; Seattle; Portland; Austin; Denver; St. Paul, Minnesota; 11 cities in San Mateo County; Montreal; Paris; and San Paulo, Brazil (a city of 19 million).

To these and other communities, San Francisco says, “Bravo. Welcome to the party. Together we can do anything.”

1. Keeps materials out of landfills. That saves landfill space and reduces landfill gas emissions such as methane and other potent greenhouse gases.
2. Returns nutrients and minerals to farms to help keep soils fertile.
3. Promotes microbial activity in topsoil. That switches on the life web in soil, making micronutrients available to plant roots and discourages diseases.
4. Supports bee populations. Farms, vineyards, and orchards use compost to grow flowering plants and trees that help bees thrive. One out of every three bites of food we eat - everything from fruits to nuts to vegetables - is dependent on bees for pollination.
5. Helps protect precious topsoil on farms, vineyards, and orchards from erosion.
6. Saves farms tremendous amounts of water. That is because quality compost is 50 percent humus by weight. The humus and organic matter in compost are natural sponges that attract and retain moisture.
7. Sequesters carbon deep in the soil, especially when used to grow cover crops that shade topsoil and increase photosynthesis.
8. Creates three times more jobs than landfilling.
9. Helps cities make significant progress toward achieving Zero Waste.
10. Improves recycling programs. When food scraps are collected separately, they don’t come in contact with recycled paper. That helps cities produce higher-quality bales of recycled paper. Paper mills now demand finished bales have 1 percent or less impurities.
11. Reduces fire risk. Compost holds moisture from rain and irrigation in topsoil. “Where plants are green and soil is moist, fire has nothing to feed on,” says Matthew Engelhart of Be Love Farm, Solano County, California.
12. Helps farms grow higher quality fruits, nuts, vegetables, and fine wines. Healthy soil equals healthy plants. Healthy plants equal healthy people.