San Francisco, California plans to be a zero waste city by the year 2020. What exactly does zero waste mean? Essentially all of the city's garbage will be recycled or composted; next to nothing will go into a landfill.

Recology is the company making this all possible. They're a private company that handles the processing of San Francisco's compost, recycling and landfill trash. All SF residents and businesses are required by law to separate their garbage into these three categories. The law was passed in 2009 with hopes of getting the city closer to that zero waste status.

Robert Reed, a spokesman for Recology, told Seeker's Laura Ling, "When I started at Recology 23 years ago, the recycling rate was around 38%; today, we've more than doubled that." In fact, San Francisco has been able to divert 80% of its waste away from landfills, and the world is taking notice.