Food scraps and other organics are the low-hanging fruit that will be plucked more aggressively from Americaґs waste stream throughout 2012, industry analysts say.
“I think thatґs where youґre going to see major increases this year,” said Mark Lichtenstein, president of the National Recycling Coalition. “This is what weґre promoting. Weґre saying, ґTake a look at organics first and letґs build some successes around that. And once you feel good about the successes you built, then letґs start to target other things in the discard stream.ґ ”
San Francisco set the bar last year after reaching its milestone of composting 1 million tons or 2 billion pounds of compostable organic waste. It took the city 15 years to reach that number since implementing a compost collection program in 1996, but it has saved 2.7 million cubic yards of landfill space, the city says.
“Weґre doing wonderful things with organics,” said Jeff Danzinger, a spokesperson with the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle). “But you still have roughly one-third of whatґs going into the landfills is organic in nature and can be applied in so many different ways.”
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Source: Waste & Recycling News
By Shawn Wright