***PRESS RELEASE***
The United Nations Honors San Francisco for Sustainability Innovation
San Francisco is the only U.S. city selected by the United Nations for inclusion in the inaugural 20 Cities Towards Zero Waste Initiative for demonstrating ambitious approaches to reducing waste.
San Francisco, CA – Today, The San Francisco Environment Department (SF Environment) announced San Francisco’s selection by the United Nations to be part of its inaugural 20 Cities Towards Zero Waste program. The cities chosen for this prestigious initiative are “demonstrating ambitious and innovative approaches to reducing waste, advancing circular economy solutions, and building more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive urban systems.”
"San Francisco is leading the way in sustainability and climate innovation, and with our updated Climate Action Plan, we're building a city that is cleaner, more affordable, and more resilient," said Mayor Lurie. "This Earth Day, I'm honored our city has been named one of the inaugural 20 Cities Towards Zero Waste by the United Nations."
San Francisco’s many achievements to reduce or eliminate waste have played a key role in moving San Francisco towards Zero Waste. The City’s pioneering 3-bin refuse collection system, launched in 1999, has become the global standard. More recently, the City’s robust support and crafting of its food recovery ecosystem has strengthened edible food recovery organizations and resulted in the rescue and redistribution of more than 15 million pounds of food to residents in need, since 2022.
But it was San Francisco’s work advancing Producer Responsibility models that was especially critical to its inclusion in the inaugural United Nations cohort. Producer Responsibility is an effective strategy that governments can use to ensure that product manufacturers remain accountable for their products throughout their entire lifecycle. Once products reach the end of their useful life, it is the manufacturers—not consumers, nonprofits, or government entities—that are responsible for these items’ collection, recycling, and proper disposal. As a result, Producer Responsibility programs save ratepayers money, ensure safe disposal, increase recycling, and ultimately incentivize producers to design products sustainably, using less toxic materials.
San Francisco’s Safe Medicine Disposal Program is one of the most successful examples of Producer Responsibility in the City, and San Francisco was one of the first cities in the nation to launch such a program. The ordinance has helped keep more than 150,000 pounds of unused, unsafe, and unwanted medications out of communities, outdoor spaces, and water sources since implementation in 2017. Residents can use drop-off kiosks, mail-back envelopes, or one-day collection events to conveniently dispose of their medicines, and the producers of these products foot the bill.
“San Francisco’s zero waste milestones reflect decades of coordinated work to change the way we view waste and recoverable materials, said Tyrone Jue, Director of the San Francisco Environment Department. “Through reducing, recovering, repairing, and reusing, we can shift toward a more circular economy.”
The City is now moving in the direction of a circular economy, which keeps products in use as long as possible through sharing, reuse, and repair to avoid waste generation. The City’s newly updated 2026 Climate Action Plan clearly defines the concept and lays out the actions San Francisco is now undertaking, and will take, in the future.
One of the City’s earlies circularity initiatives that offers the greatest opportunity for scaling is how the City manages building construction and demolition. As the largest users of materials, buildings present the biggest opportunity to implement circularity measures. Currently, San Francisco’s building materials exchange is a warehouse for the resale of high-quality office furniture and equipment, as well as construction materials like doors and flooring. This program supports deconstruction of existing buildings—rather than demolition—when possible, so that high quality materials can be rescued for use in new buildings. Expanding the program would include the development of a hub that could temporarily store and redistribute massive amounts of recouped building products such as structural wood, doors, ceiling tiles and more. In addition to ensuring less material flows to landfill, the hub would strengthen the local economy through a robust secondary market, potentially helping to mitigate supply chain disruptions by having locally sourced materials readily available.
Other cities included in the inaugural UN initiative include Bologna (Italy), Suzhou City (China), Zapopan (Mexico), and Florianópolis (Brazil). SF Environment hosted city officials from Florianópolis, Brazil, during SF Climate Week to share learnings and progress on San Francisco’s successful food recovery program.
To read San Francisco 2026 Climate Action Plan and learn more about the City’s Circularity goals, click here.
To learn more about The United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Zero Waste, click here.
About SF Environment
Now in its 30th year, SF Environment is the City’s climate accountability, coordination, and equity engine, advancing climate protection to enhance quality of life for all San Franciscans. SF Environment is recognized worldwide for its environmental policies and programs, which center on reducing emissions, achieving zero waste, reducing toxic chemical hazards, advancing environmental justice, promoting sustainable transportation modes, expanding clean energy infrastructure, greening our built environment, and protecting our urban forest.
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SF Environment Contact: [email protected]