Mike Lee of the San Diego Union Tribune reports on San Diego County's new Construction and Demolition Debris recycling ordinance which will begin July 1st. The ordinance will require developers and individual builders to pay a deposit on planned construction projects which they could recover after proving a 50% recycling rate.

Since late last year, San Diego has introduced a package of measures designed to keep the city in compliance with California's recycling target. San Diego is at 55 percent, and city officials expect the construction recycling program to boost the number to 62 percent.

Previously, San Diego has been able to reduce the amount of Construction Debris being disposed in one of it's landfills by imposing fees on the dumping of certain materials. This new deposit ordinance is the latest waste diversion measure instituted by the county as the Miramar landfill nears capacity and could close by 2012.

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CAW and C & D

The self-destructing DVD is trying to make a comeback and the idea is just as bad as it was a few years ago when David Tynan of PC World rated it one of the worst tech products of all time. Amazingly enough, a German Firm is rolling out the technology again with the same premise and the same problems: The adhesive reacts with oxygen when a consumer unseals the package, starting a chemical reaction that renders the disk unreadable after 48 hours, after which the disk is thrown away.

Earlier attempts to market this product have failed due partially to vocal opposition from environmental groups including CAW:

Self-destruct DVDs are not a new idea. In 2003 Flexplay,
an Atlanta, Georgia technology company, introduced disposable DVDs
using its own self-destruct technology, dubbed ED-D. This was met with
fierce criticism from environmental groups, who slammed the notion of
throwaway DVDs.

The idea that you build obsolescence directly into an otherwise durable product is wasteful and irresponsible. Beyond images of landfills piling up with spent disks, the problem with this is the idea that you are mining precious virgin resources to create a product that is essentially permanent, yet only has an effective lifespan of hours. Furthermore, consumers can already avoid the "inconvenience" of returning a rental to the store through on-demand and digital download services that are already cheaper and more convenient.

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Recycling and composting expected to be mandatory by year's end

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is proposing a law that would make Recycling and Composting mandatory within the city. San Francisco already has the highest diversion rate in the country at 70% and city officials say that this law would be neccessary in order for it to reach their goal of 75%. Jacoba Charles of Plenty Magazine reports:

“We’ve already reached the people who know it’s the right thing to do,” says Thea Hillman with the San Francisco Department of the Environment. “Now we’re at the folks who need not so much the carrot but more of the stick.”

Although mandatory recycling ordinances are already in place in some U.S. cities, San Francisco would be the first to mandate composting.

A major area this law would address is the lower diversion rate for multi-family units. Apartment owners don't always supply recycling & composting bins for their tenants. The enactment of the ordinance would require landlords to provide these bins. This would have a significant impact on the rate since a majority of San Francisco residents are renters.

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CAW and Recycling/Composting:

May 25 - Garbage Proposal is a Hot One (Sacramento Bee)