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Composting

Composting

San Francisco has created the first large scale urban collection of food scraps for composting in the country. Today, hundreds of thousands of residents and over 3,000 restaurants and other businesses send over 400 tons of food scraps and other compostable material each day to Recology's Jepson-Prairie composting facility, shown above. Food scraps, plant trimmings, soiled paper, and other compostables are turned into a nutrient-rich soil amendment, or compost, that is used to produce the organic food and wine that San Francisco is famous for serving.

We know that compostable food and paper products still make up more than 36 percent of the material that San Francisco sends to landfill. Our goal is to divert even more compostable material from landfill. Follow the links below to find out how you can participate at home and at work.

For more information visit COOL 2012, a project dedicated to documenting the benefits of municipal compost programs. Or download Stop Trashing the Climate, a report detailing the climate change impacts of recycling and composting.

Composting Interests:

  • - Residential
  • - Business
  • - City Government
Residential Composting Residential
Business Composting Business City Government
City Government Composting City Government
Compostable Bags and Other Products Residential Business City Government

Public Awareness

How The Green Cart System Works


Composting Closes the Loop (June 8, 2007)

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City & County of San Francisco

(415) 355-3700 • • 11 Grove Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

SFEnvironment is a department of the City & County of San Francisco