It鈥檚 easy for politicians to set goals for their cities. It鈥檚 far, far harder to achieve them. Take San Francisco鈥檚 much-heralded goal of sending absolutely no garbage to landfills by the year 2020. In a composted nutshell? It鈥檚 nowhere near happening.
Back in 2003 when the city鈥檚 Commission on the Environment, at the urging of Mayor Willie Brown and the entire Board of Supervisors, set that goal, it was considered achievable.
But 13 years later, and just four years from the goal date, San Francisco continues to throw away huge amounts of garbage. The city鈥檚 waste has averaged 1,463 tons every workday over the past year, according to Recology, the city鈥檚 trash collector. There鈥檚 no penalty for not meeting the target other than, of course, a swelling landfill that鈥檚 bad for the environment and a big dent in San Francisco鈥檚 reputation as one of the greenest cities in the world.
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 hit our targets,鈥� said Guillermo Rodriguez, spokesman for the Department of the Environment. He called the zero waste plan a 鈥渂ig, audacious goal鈥� that the city is still trying to meet, but admitted not everybody is doing their part.
鈥淩eally, we need our businesses and residents to do a much better job,鈥� he said, pointing out that 50 percent of what San Franciscans put in their black bins could be recycled or composted instead.
Recology began keeping daily garbage averages in 2008, but the annual trash tallies kept dating back to 2000 show big strides followed by complacency. In 2003, the year the zero waste goal was set, 581,567 tons of waste were sent to the city鈥檚 landfill, 148,000 fewer tons than in the year 2000. Last year, that figure had dropped to 386,854, a 33 percent decrease. The lowest tally came in 2012 when 366,504 tons of trash went to the landfill, but that figure has crept up every year since.
Like so much else in San Francisco, trash heaps grow and shrink along with the economy. More residents, more workers and far more construction projects mean more garbage, despite whatever goal was set all those years ago.
Every workday, garbage trucks trundle into Recology鈥檚 Transfer Station 鈥� better known as the dump 鈥� on Tunnel Avenue and unload their collected trash into a cavernous space twice the size of a basketball court and measuring 20 feet deep. An average day sees the gigantic hole filled 10 feet deep, a busy day even more.
鈥淲elcome to the pit,鈥� said Recology spokesman Robert Reed on a recent visit to the pungent site. The clinking noise coming from unloading trucks signaled city residents had put a lot of recyclable glass into their black bins. The aroma signaled plenty of compostable food was in there too. None of that can be plucked from the heap, and it all winds up in the landfill.
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