In addition to having the filthiest streets in the nation, San Francisco has just been anointed the greenest city in the United States and Canada, according to a study by Siemens. The report assessed and compared "27 major U.S. and Canadian cities on environmental performance and policies across nine categories - CO2 emissions, energy, land use, buildings, transport, water, waste, air quality and environmental governance." more ›

SFist was walking along Larkin Street near Ellis the other day, amidst the myriad delicious Vietnamese joints, and were stopped in our tracks by this rather festive-looking recycling bin. more ›

Supervisor Scott Wiener has had quite enough of the 'unsavory' characters who congregate around the Castro Safeway with their cart-loads of bottles and cans, headed to the recycling center. He's been aware of neighbors' complaints for years regarding that Safeway, and he proposes that the City lobby the State to mandate that all bottle redemption centers begin offering food vouchers in place of cash for recyclables. We're envisioning a citywide revolt by elderly Chinese ladies who carry around those red, blue, and white heavy-duty plastic satchels. more ›

We've always contended that while the whole composting/recycling thing is a noble and marvelous pursuit, we prefer our tiny apartment kitchens to be non-smelly and fruit-fly-free, and the whole composting thing (when we barely cook anyway and take trash out irregularly) becomes a minor source of torment. Furthermore, if and when the city decides to start issuing $100 - 1,000 fines to residents, building owners and businesses who fail to compost — and we remain skeptical that this is more than an idle threat, because are they really going to police our trash bags so closely? — we predict a major backlash, because the picking through our trash and pointing fingers at our failures starts to feel a little fascist, no? more ›

Recycling technology sure has come a long way, and it looks like San Francisco's Recology might be leading the charge. more ›

Mayor Gavin Newsom took his message about mandatory recycling programs to the Op-Ed page of the Sacramento Bee yesterday, aiming in particular at so-called "high temperature disposal technologies" which he calls "just glorified incineration" and not sustainable. Newsom also takes the opportunity to tout the new, large-scale, mandatory composting programs in San Francisco and Los Angeles. more ›

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C.W. "Phone It In" Nevius is complaining about one of his favorite topics in today's Chronicle: "recycling rustlers." How many columns can one guy write about industrious homeless people prying discarded fine recyclables out of neighborhood blue bins? Why is it such an issue for people in this city? Personally, this writer is grateful for the rag picking variety of the underclass. Whenever some random hipster is forced to evacuate a unit in his building, thus dumping boxes of irony rich clothing, books, and assorted tschokes on the sidewalk, the shopping cart set can always be counted on to fetch the lot of it before sundown. No fuss, no muss. These people provide a valuable service to the community! more ›

Thank God for garbage disposals. Seriously. On your knees. Because Mayor Gavin Newsom just signed a ruling calling on all San Franciscans to compost their eggshells, coffee grounds, apple peels, dead roses and other food rubbish and garden clippings. While city officials will give residents time to adjust to storing their waste in a green bin, they "could eventually start levying fines of $100 on rubbish recidivists." (Thankfully, many residents are now too cash-strapped to afford real, non-prepackaged food, so many of you don't have to worry. Yay, hunger!) If you recall, the Board of Supes OK'd the country's toughest composting law earlier this month. more ›

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors yesterday enacted the toughest law in the nation with regard to mandatory recycling and composting, and within two years business owners and landlords could have pay fines of up to $500 for failing to follow guidelines. more ›

Anti-reduce, reuse, recycler-er Justin Clarke, AKA SF Libertarian Examiner, would like to tell you something. He would like to tell you that Newsom's alleged plan to criminalize not recycling stinks worse than Ayn Rand's rotting corpse. "Whether you think that recycling is valuable or not (I vote not)," Clarke muses, SFPD shouldn't force you to recycle in the same way "that the police shouldn’t be in charge of getting you to change your underwear." (Which, for argument's sake, they SHOULD be in charge of you changing your underwear. That, and not wearing flip flops, forbidding you to wear Drakkar Noir, and to demand you take regular showers. Really, there's no reason the barrel of a gun should not enforce these rules.) more ›

As mentioned previously, SFEnvironment.org has a great list of additional resources. You an drop off your mattress for free at Raphael House (call ahead for times). BedBusters will come pick it up for a charge based on mattress size. Estates Mattress Company in Oakland will recycle single- and full-sized mattress drop-offs for $10 per mattress. Additionally, there is EcoHaul, but it sounds like you'd need a truck-full of items to make it worth the price (call/email for prices). more ›

Instead of kicking your passé electronics to the curb, be kind and recycle them properly. (We can think of several such items we're currently hoarding in our closets.) more ›

British environmentalist David de Rothschild, author of Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook, met with members of the San Francisco Conservation Corps on Wednesday to talk about "Plastiki," his seacraft constructed almost entirely of plastic (except for the masts), which he'll use in an 11,000 mile voyage to Australia. more ›

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Before Sunday's Latin-tinged Carnaval drunkfest and the self-consciously zany Live Masturbate-a-Thon, be sure to check out San Francisco's dirty and unique Artist In Residence program happening down at the dump. DeYoung ruler/society darling/abusive stepmother Dede Wilsey you will not find here. more ›

Mayor Gavin Newsom, who seems to be getting a decent amount of ink in the Gray Old Lady these days, says the following about recycling: more ›

Lotta stuff going on today, a lot of which we've mentioned before: Another Hole In The Head continues and the Black Film Festival gets started! Also, it's the Berkeley Edge Fest. Here's some other stuff too. more ›

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Blame it on the nice weather earlier this week, but we got antsy and just couldn’t wait for First Thursday to get out and see some art; so we stopped by 77 Geary to take a peek at the Vik Muniz show at Rena Bransten Gallery that we keep hearing so much about. more ›

Last week, we talked about Ultimate Recycling. Today, we want to remind you about Regular Recycling. Because tomorrow is Earth Day. more ›