Go, Frisco, Go!

San Francisco recycles. A LOT! The concrete debris from construction sites (demolished buildings, for example) is recycled into sidewalks. The leftover paint people have after remodeling an apartment gets recycled into three basic colors and sent to non-profits in the US or Mexico. They've got an infrastructure in place for turning food waste into compost, which in turn gets sent to farms throughout California. That last one is especially important for other cities to emulate, considering how much food gets shipped into urban centers. Urban composting is the least we could do to give back to our small- and mid-sized farmers.

San Francisco's mayor, Gavin Newsom, is determined to take it up a notch, though. The city keeps about 70% of its garbage from ending up in landfills, and he's bent on making it 75%. Now if only he could add more affordable housing to his city I'd consider moving (New York City is only at 30.6%--come on Bloomberg, ramp it up!).

Click here for the full article from the New York Times.