No one is better at making trash than the United States. Americans produce more of it per capita than anyone in the world. What we’re struggling to figure out is how to get rid of it when landfill space is running out and recycling markets are dwindling. But some cities, driven by eco-conscious citizens, environmental regulations and their own bottom lines, are finding innovative ways to reduce the waste they produce and the amount they need to throw away.
More from the series: ‘Zero Waste’ might be the impossible dream, but San Francisco isn’t giving up | Do plastic bag bans work?’
1.
Robots win, hands down
If cities hope to sell their used plastic, it needs to be pure and that requires lots of sorting to winnow out the bad stuff from the good. San Francisco’s “zero waste” program uses lots of people along the conveyor belt but its best performers are optical scan sorters and an artificial intelligence-powered robotic hand that can spot and remove bad plastics twice as fast as a human.
2.
The higher the building, the lower the participation
As San Francisco officials struggle to break past the 60 percent threshold in their quest to be a zero waste city, they have discovered that people in apartments and other large buildings are much less likely to sort their trash than single-family homes. This could be the fault of landlords who don’t make the three bins available (food waste, recyclables and other trash).
100 billion
Number of plastic bags used annually in the United States.
10%
The approximate amount of those bags that are recycled.
3.
Beware the ban
When Chicago banned single-use plastic bags in 2015, people just started using more paper bags or heavier gauge plastic bags—defeating the purpose of reducing waste and actually increasing their carbon footprint.
4.
Every nickel counts
People do respond to fees—even ones as small as a few cents. When Chicago replaced its plastics ban with a 7-cent fee for each plastic bag, people cut down on their usage by 40 percent. The reason is something called “loss aversion;” studies show the threat of paying more changes behavior more reliably than the promise of saving a little.
4.5
Number of pounds of trash each person in the U.S. produced per day in 2017.
2.7
Number of pounds of trash produced per person each day in 1960.
5.
Food feeds the grid
The technology exists for cities, no matter the size, to turn their food waste—estimated to be about 30 percent of the waste stream—into biogas for fuel. Unfortunately, existing natural gas supplies are too cheap to make biogas cost efficient. Some cities are doing it on ethical grounds anyway.
Surprise!
In San Francisco, artists have the run of the city’s garbage transfer station as part of an artist in residence program. They have turned reclaimed trash into photography, painting, drawing, video, textiles, and musical composition. There’s even a three-acre sculpture garden that is open to the public.
What’s your city doing to be green?
Tell us on social with #WhatWorks and we might share your response.
More from the series: ‘Zero Waste’ might be the impossible dream, but San Francisco isn’t giving up | Do plastic bag bans work?’