Starting on January 1, 2015, the City of Seattle will no longer allow food or compostable paper, including pizza boxes, paper napkins and paper towels, in the garbage.
The food waste requirements were passed earlier this year by the Seattle City Council and signed into law by Mayor Ed Murray. The new ordinance is projected to divert as much as 38,000 more tons of food scraps from the landfill each year, which helps Seattle achieve its goal to recycle or compost 60 percent of its waste by 2015.
“Seattle is a national leader in recycling,” said Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) Solid Waste Director Tim Croll. “Most of our city’s businesses and residents are already composting. This requirement is a progression of our collective efforts that help our city become even greener.”
Both Seattle’s recyclables and yard waste have been prohibited from the garbage for more than a decade.
Before submitting the food waste legislation, SPU polled businesses and residents and discovered widespread support for the measure. In June’s Survey USA telephone poll more than 3 out of 4 Seattle residents polled supported the proposal.
Organics (which includes food, paper napkins, cardboard pizza boxes, leaves and grass) make up the biggest component of Seattle’s waste. SPU estimates that 30 percent of the 317, 258 tons of trash that was disposed in the landfill in 2013 was compostable.
Seattle is the latest of several cities that have passed food waste requirements, including Vancouver, BC, Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA, and New York, NY.
Click here to learn more about SPU’s the food waste requirements.
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