ne of the more innovative programs in this country is San Francisco's. The program makes the process as easy for customers as possible. Residents receive three bins. Glass, metal, paper, and plastic all go in one. Sorting is left to professionals, reducing the chance that recyclables will be contaminated with unwanted trash that can lower their value for manufacturers. Compostables such as food scraps and yard waste go in another, garbage in the third. A single hauler, Norcal Waste Systems, handles all waste, thereby streamlining collection and sorting. (New York uses about a dozen.) Norcal also offers twelve recycling programs, tailored to different neighborhoods and needs. It bills on a pay-as-you-throw basis, charging for garbage disposal but not recycling -- a financial incentive for citizens to set out less trash.

So successful is the system that San Francisco is about to meet California's statewide mandate for 50 percent recycling, a real achievement for an urban area that can't rely on yard waste to meet the goal. (New York averaged 20 percent before its recycling cuts.) Norcal has also taken impressive advantage of the global demand for recyclables, sending the city's trash around the United States and Pacific Rim. San Francisco has even introduced legislation to get to 75 percent recycling by 2010 -- and, by 2020, to achieve recycling's Everest: zero garbage. "San Francisco has had a passion for recycling," says Norcal's Robert Reed, "That's the driving force. Then it's just a matter of going out and working at it."

Tufts economist Ackerman agrees. He argues that communities have to get beyond the limited question of whether recycling costs more than putting it all on the garbage truck. The point, he says, is that "if you get up in the morning and decide to do something different about the environment, you actually can do it."