Where No City Has Gone Before: San Francisco Will Be World's First Zero-Waste Town by 2020
I remember there was a fair amount of mocking about our "garbage police" and plastic bag nanny-ing but I am proud of my city and looking forward to the next steps.
Just a few years ago, a zero-waste city was considered a futuristic scenario. Now, the city by the bay is on track to be the first and only North American city to achieve this impressive goal -- and it plans to get there by 2020.
For San Franciscans like myself, life without the “Fantastic Three” -- the simple, color-coded cart system consisting of a green composting, blue recycling and black, often smaller trash cart -- has become unthinkable. Putting banana peels and used tissues into an empty quart of ice-cream is part of our routine. Trips to cities without composting bins feel like visits to strange planets in distant galaxies. The fact that we could so quickly get used to skittle-sized garbage bags while our compost bags are bulging with leftovers speaks not only to a well-conceived program and the adaptability of San Francisco residents, but to the potential of reaching similar milestones anywhere else in the U.S or abroad.
More here: http://www.alternet.org/visions/155039/comments?page=entire
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and have seen firsthand the lack of concern about disposing of personal garbage in a proper way. 
There seems to be a generational thing going on with it -- I was taught to place my garbage in a city can or, if one was not available, keep it in my pocket until I could find one. The key word here being "taught". Also, I hate to say it, but I see a class divide on who uses the city cans vs. who just drops their shit on the sidewalk. I am a bit of a Litter Nazi and it makes me mental to see someone who is literally standing three feet from a city can but who finishes their chips and dumps the bag on the street.
But I am damned proud of our recycling record here. 
and need them emptied more often. I constantly see cans that are overflowing -- people wanting to do the right thing but not getting the chance. I also think a public education push via area schools and local TV about littering would be well worth it. There are a multitude of schools in my neighborhood and I cannot believe what I see on the streets after they hit the local shops after 3:00pm -- it can be a disgusting mess. Add in our winds and garage is flying for blocks.
Back when I used to pay more attention to these things (I had a subscription to "Garbage Magazine"
one of the tougher issues was construction debris. This was anything from drywall and lumber to asphalt and tar paper. It represented something like 33% by volume IIRC. I'm curious how SF is handling this stuff. Do they demand "on site" reclaimation? Do they have a special facility? There's a hundred years of old buildings filled with stuff one might not even be allowed to use anymore. I wish the article had gone into more detail about what was left in the "22%".
