Measure description
Trash to primary landfill is a measure of the average workday tons of garbage sent to the City's primary landfill each month. It is a key indicator of the City's current recycling and composting practices as it works toward its goal of achieving zero waste. The Department of the Environment is responsible for tracking the performance of this measure as part of its waste reduction efforts.
Why this measure is important
Reporting on the average Trash to Primary Landfill provides the public, elected officials, and City staff with a current snapshot of San Francisco's progress in achieving zero waste. Zero waste means that the City sends zero discards to the landfill or high-temperature destruction. Achieving this goal is important because recycling and composting helps the City to conserve resources, combat climate change, and create jobs.
The interactive chart below presents the City's average workday tons Refuse to Primary Landfill.
The chart's legend is below:
- Y-axis: Workday tons of trash going to primary landfill
- X-axis: Calendar year
- Actuals below the 1550 tons target line are preferred.
Trash to Primary Landfill
How performance is measured
The average workday Trash to Primary Landfill is calculated using the following methodology:
Total workday tons of trash going to primary landfill divided by the total workdays in the month.
In 2018, Mayor Breed committed San Francisco to a new Zero Waste pledge to reduce waste generation by 15% and landfill disposal by 50% by 2030. The target of 1600 tons set in the chart above is representative of that landfill disposal goal.
The number displayed on the scorecard page represents a fiscal year average of the raw daily values, and therefore may differ slightly than average of the monthly averages in the chart above.
Data
All Trash to Primary Landfill data come from the San Francisco Department of the Environment. Data are reported with a two to three-month lag. For example, May's data will be available at the end of July.
Additional information
Learn more about SF Environment's Zero Waste Initiative.
City Performance Scorecards
This page is part of the City Performance Scorecards.
Return to the Sustainability & Climate Action Scorecard.
Return to the City Performance Scorecards Home Page.