Although yard waste creeps up all year, many residents around the country do not have the luxury of yearlong curbside composting programs. Many municipalities do not offer a curbside composting program at all. Curbside organic waste programs typically collect leaves, twigs, grass clippings and other organic scraps found around the yard.
One organic waste program available throughout the year is serviced by Recology in San Francisco. Recology, which was founded in 1921 and started the first curbside composting collection program in the U.S. in 1996, provides services to residential and commercial customers in California, Oregon, Nevada and Washington. Its San Francisco program, Recology SF, collects an abundance of different yard waste from residents.
Types of yard waste collected by the program include branches and brush, flowers and floral trimmings, grasses and weeds, leaves and tree trimmings that are less than 6 inches in diameter and 4 feet long. The program does not accept yard waste such as dirt, rocks, animal feces and wood.
Despite their common use, many residents who take part in organic waste programs do not know what actually happens to their compostable items. Recology operates several composting facilities around California and Oregon that transform yard waste into compost for use as soil amendments by agricultural industries.
After Recology SF collects the yard waste and other compostables, it goes to one of the company’s composting facilities. From there, it decomposes as it is eaten and recycled by organisms that turn the material into soil amendment. Recology SF’s composting facilities serve to accelerate this process to help nature create compost that will improve soil structure. Composting yard waste is an alternative to using chemicals that pollute the environment, and it benefits soil that loses its nutrients to harvesting.
Since 1921, Recology’s eco-friendly offerings have grown to make it the largest employee-owned company in the resource recovery industry, partnering with over 113 communities and providing services to 670,000 residential and 95,00 commercial customers.
Visit Recology SF’s website here. For a full list of what composting material Recology SF takes, click here.
Recology SF Works as Longstanding Compost Program
Recology’s curbside composting program in San Francisco has long been a shining example for other municipalities across the country.