San Francisco has earned its reputation as the Greenest City in North America. In 2012, the city celebrated the landmark of composting 1,000,000 tons of municipal compost.  This is a momentous achievement that was obtained through ambitious legislation fueled by a caring constituency. In the past few years, the city of San Francisco has made huge leaps in making compost programs convenient and available. Already, the city diverts 78% of their waste through recycling and composting, and they have a zero waste goal for 2020. (City and County of San Francisco Office of the Mayor) the key to their success is team work. The City works with  the San Francisco Department of Environment, as well as Recology (http://www.recology.com/) to expand the compost outreach to all facets of the large city community.

Citizens must not only be able, but also willing. 
Though the city of  San Francisco has made relatively convenient for citizens to compost, the program con not be successful if the constituency does not understand the importance of waste reduction. An important tool the City promotes citizen participation is through education. San Francisco was the first city to implement a lunchroom composting program in schools, Food to Flowers (http://sfenvironmentkids.org/teacher/food_flowers.htm). The program forms a connection between the children and the earth as well as fosters positive habit formation. If they compost in their schools, they are more likely to compost at home and for the rest of their lives. Food to Flowers has reached over 100 schools in the San Francisco area and similar programs in other cities have spouted up. 

Above: a municipal compost site 


To the left: a sign used by the City to indicate compost bins. The motto "Anything that once lived, goes in here" is used.

Composting and recycling are great because they reduce the waste that is filling our landfills, but through my research and reflection I have come across the idea that at the root of many of the human race's problems is excessive consumption. If we become conscious consumers, we use less and therefore waste less. Colin Beavan, or No Impact Man, took conscious consumption to the extreme. He and his family underwent a year long transformation towards a lifestyle with as little impact on the environment as possible living in New York City. They got rid of their TV, stopped buying new, only bought their food from the local farmer's market (completely cutting off meat, coffee and restaurants) as well as many other changes. 

Beavan made a documentary following the process. It is an eye opening film because it showed me all of our daily habits that we take advantage of are making such a negative impact on the environment and not only that but the habits are actually crippling our happiness. One of the most beautiful moments of the film is when the family of three wash their clothes together. They are smiling and laughing, there is a deep connection between the members and that connection was possible because they got rid of all of the distractions like television and shopping. 

Though I agree that this is an extreme example that is out of reach for the common person, after watching the film I have realized how important conscious consumption really is.