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