Composting in the Cesar Chavez Student Center
Sign to show your support for efforts to bring Green bins for composting into the Cesar Chavez Student Center at SFSU, and to replace all of the plastic utensils with envrionmentally friendly compostable utensils!
Students of
San Francisco State University:
Americans produce enough waste as a country
each year to fill a convoy of garbage trucks long enough to wrap around the
Earth six times and then reach halfway to the moon. In order to alleviate this
immense burden—a burden that we inflict upon the earth and predominantly
low-income communities in the form of landfills and waste incineration— the
City of San Francisco has implemented the “Fantastic Three” curbside recycling
program. This program uses three bins: a black one for trash; a blue one for
recyclables like cans, glass and paper; and a green bin for compostable
material like yard trimmings and food scraps.
Currently, about 150,000 San Francisco residents and 2,000 San Francisco
businesses compost their green waste. These composting residents and
restaurants rescue about 300 tons of food waste a day. That’s 80,000 tons of
mostly food scraps diverted each year. These leftovers and lawn clippings are
turned into an award winning fertilizer that is used by California farmers.
Combined with intensified recycling efforts, we’ve now diverted 63% of San
Francisco’s waste from the landfill.
San Francisco State University produces a
lot of waste. Currently only a small fraction is composted. The Cesar Chavez
student center composts none of its food scraps. We can immensely reduce
what we are sending to the landfill in two significant ways: 1) by
replacing the petroleum-based plastic silverware and plate ware with
compostable utensils and 2) by putting “green bins” in the student center,
where our leftovers and starch-based plates can be ecologically
discarded. This petition is not an attack, but a declaration of support.
Signing your name below indicates that you will support the food venders in the
Cesar Chavez student center when they begin using compostable silverware,
plates, coffee cups, to-go containers and even straws! This support will be as
simple as throwing your compostable coffee cup and bagel remains into the green
bin.
