SPUR’s most recent policy paper, “Critical Cooling,” found that a mandatory recycling rule is one of the most significant policies the city can enact to reduce emissions, reducing more than 186,000 tons per year if we increase diversion just 5 percent. The reason that a small increase in recycling and composting makes such a huge difference in terms of global warming emissions is that food scraps emit a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2 when put into a landfill. Those emissions are avoided if food scraps are broken down using typical composting processes. This can all be accomplished with no additional impact on the city budget. We strongly urge the Board of Supervisors to pass this well-vetted and readily implementable piece of legislation.