By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling
San Francisco has set a new national recycling and composting record by achieving an 80 percent landfill diversion rate — the highest rate of any city in North America.
The City by the Bay now only sends 20 percent of its refuse to landfill as the result of aggressive effort by the city’s leadership along with its partnership with waste management company Recology to increase reuse, recycling and composting, as well as source reduction of waste.
“San Francisco is demonstrating once again that zero waste is an achievable and environmentally-responsible goal,” said David Chiu, board president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in a prepared statement. “I thank Recology and the Department of Environment staff who are reaching out and educating our residents and businesses to make sure they continue to recycle and compost our way to zero waste.”
The milestone puts San Francisco closer to achieving its goal of sending nothing to landfills or incinerators by 2020.