Huge Emissions Savings, Other Environmental Benefits Achieved Through Urban Compost Collection Program

Recology Press Release, Earth Times, Nov. 24, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO (Business Wire) - Officials and local farmers announced today that city residents and businesses have composted more than 620,000 tons of material, mostly food scraps, through the city’s green cart program. By composting all that food since the program was created instead of sending it to landfill, San Francisco:

* Avoided creating 137,000 tons of methane gas, which the Environmental Protection Agency reports is 21 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
* Sequestered, or put back into the soil, 18,400 metric tons of CO2. That is the equivalent of keeping nearly 3,600 cars off the road.
* Created a total C02E benefit (methane avoided and carbon sequestered) of 155,000 tons. That’s equal to reforesting 35 square miles of sustainable forest for 23 years or offsetting emissions from all vehicles crossing the Bay Bridge for 311 days.

Blumenfeld, Director of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment, and Obama appointee to head US EPA Region 9, said “The reduction in air emissions achieved through the compost program represents real progress and tell us two things. We should compost all our food scraps, and this program should be replicated in many other cities. That would go a long, long way to reducing greenhouse gases.”

These numbers are based on a current, approved protocol set by the Climate Action Reserve. In addition to reducing air emissions, by placing food scraps in compost collection carts San Francisco residents and businesses help local farms improve soil health and structure, increase drought resistance, and reduce and even eliminate the need for supplemental water, fertilizers, and pesticides.

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