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State AG Rob Bonta Sues Exxon for Falsely Claiming Plastics Were Recyclable When They Were Not

The oil giant ExxonMobile is also in the plastics production industry, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta says they’ve been lying to the public for decades claiming that non-recyclable plastic was actually recyclable, just in order to sell more single-use plastic containers.

Looks Like Recology’s SF Monopoly Will Live On, as Competing Trash Collector Drops Their Rival Bid

You would think that overcharging SF residents by $95 million would lead to Recology losing its monopoly on local trash collection. It has not, and now it appears Recology will keep that monopoly after a competitor dropped their bid.

Reminder: SF Will Take Away Your Christmas Tree for Free If You Put It Out With Your Recycling

No need to dump your Christmas tree illegally, as Recology will simply take it for free and turn it into mulch if you put it with your curbside trash and recycling, as they have done for 30 years.

Recology's Center In Bayview Hunters Point Gets New High-Tech Help To Organize Recyclables

Just in time to probe through holiday wrapping paper and plastic packaging, a crew of new AI-assisted robots and optical scanning machines at San Francisco's Recology recycling center will help make sense of all the reusable bits some 800,000 San Franciscans dispose of daily.

Why Not Everything You Recycle In SF Is Actually Getting Recycled

You may have seen the dire story two months back about how China had stopped buying America's plastic from recycling centers, but there's more to the story at the local level.

ATTN SF: You Can Now Recycle Bubble Wrap, Plastic Bags, And More In Your Blue Bins

Some new Recology recycling guidelines that have been outlined here by sfrecycles.org but have not yet appeared on the Recology website, give us a whole bunch of new things to remember when

Your Blue Apron And Amazon Prime Habits Are Why San Francisco's Recycling Rates Are Going Up

There is no stronger click-bait than the words, "FREE SHIPPING." San Franciscans (and Americans in general) don't have time to go to the General Store anymore and chit-chat with the old guy at

Does Recology Sort The Black Trash? Sifting The Truth Out Of A Recycling Myth

The answer to the question of whether our garbage overlords do any sorting of recyclables from our trash is NO, everything in the black bin goes to landfill automatically, and yes, that's a

50% Of Contents From Black SF Waste Bins Is Recyclable Or Compostable

How do we put out so much waste in San Francisco, about 650 tons per day compared to just 600 tons of recycled and composted material combined? Simply by throwing away compostable and

California's Redemption Recycling Center Model Is Garbage

For a recycling scavenger whom CBS 5 is calling by the pseudonym "Daniel", it all boils down to the weight of his haul. The cans and bottles he scores from dumpsters in alleys

Recology Intentionally Told Schools To Trash Millions Of Recyclable Trays

Recology instructed San Francisco school officials to not recycle the recyclable plastic trays the district uses daily to serve students food. So reports the Chronicle, which details the policies of the city-contracted waste

More Of San Francisco's Trash Went To Landfills Last Year, Not Less

Nate Silver's swell number-crunching blog FiveThirtyEight just did an exposé of sorts about San Francisco's long-held status as the nation's mecca for trash diversion specifically the oft-cited figure that, as a city, we

Market Street Safeway Still Evicting Recycling Center, People Still Protesting

There's been an ongoing fight for several years between neighbors in the vicinity of Dolores, Duboce, and Market Streets and homeless advocates over the eviction of the outdoor, nonprofit recycling center at the

Pile Of Recycling Debris Fuels Overnight Recology Fire, Does Not Spare The Air

For more than nine hours last night, a crew of over 100 firefighters battled a fire at Recology's recycling warehouse in the Bayview. The blaze ignited around 8:30 p.m. after the

Elderly Oakland Man Who Spoke No English Arrested And Held Several Days For Collecting Recycling

You would think Oakland cops had better things to do than arrest frail elderly people who are sorting through trash and trying to make a few nickels by collecting cans and bottles. But,

There's An Election Today, You Know

Given that the California Presidential Primary is utterly irrelevant, some of you may have forgotten that there was an election today. But there is! And Dianne Feinstein needs your vote! Well, not really.

Arts & Entertainment

Opposing Cardboard Fortresses To Do Battle In Dolores Park In June

Not to be confused with the other cardboard battle in Dolores Park, the Ultimate Team Cardboard Fortress Battle promises to bring even more childlike whimsy to Dolores Park with a showdown between two

Mayor Lee Rewarded With Buckets Of Your Discarded Leftovers

After reaching one-million tons of diverted compost back in November, Mayor Lee finally got around celebrating the momentous occasion with the city's recycling program yesterday. As ABC7 reports, Mayor Mustache commemorated all those

Supervisors Very Concerned About Cardboard Thieves, Bottle-and-Can Scavengers

Here's a problem we didn't know was a problem: recycling theft. All those little Asian ladies and various other scavengers who go around pulling bottles and cans and cardboard out of bins in

SF: Greenest City in U.S. & Canada

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

Arts & Entertainment

The Prettiest Recycling Bin in Town [Updated]

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. The sharp-dressed bin's owners

Wiener Wants to Do a Food-Not-Cash Thing for Bottle and Can Redemption

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

Nobody Fined Yet for Not Composting, But Maybe Soon?

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

Never Fear, You CAN Recycle Mr. Potato Head

Recycling technology sure has come a long way, and it looks like San Francisco's Recology might be leading the charge. After noticing the forlorn Mr. Potato Head pictured on the "Recyclable" label of

Newsom Evangelizes About Recycling, Composting in <em>Sacramento Bee</em>

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