San Francisco

On my Uber ride to the hotel, I noticed that this place is very squished! It was a concrete jungle compared to Portland, I saw hardly any trees when compared to Portland. It was kind of saddening not going to lie. However, it was indeed great to see such juxtaposition in the US for educational reasons.

• I also noticed a lot of homeless people, in Portland there were some as well but here there are more

I got to my hotel in downtown SF near Chinatown. There, they had only a regular trash can.

The next day, I went to grab a coffee at a local coffee shop and took the little tram that goes up the hill! It's called the Powell-Mason Cable Car Line, I forgot that SF still has these and it was cool to ride on one! I hopped on because i thought it was free but I was talking about the history of the car with one of the conductors and he said that there are actually tickets for it and they cost $8 one way but he said its ok and let me ride for free! This is a cool little mode of public transport and I am guessing it is also sustainable as it it public transport and I reckon its electric as its a cable car.

• I grabbed a coffee and a pastry. To my surprise, they all came in sustainable tableware! The sleeve is recycled, the cup, plate, napkin, and knife were compostable. Sadly, there was no compost bin in sight, but I reckon that this must be better than having plastic and virgin paper tableware given to their customers as well as ending up in the trash. I would like to do research on that to find out if this is true or if its just a psychological thing. It was a fancy café in a hotel, Café Rito, so I can see where the push to be sustainable comes from and why the possible profit margin cuts from using such table ware can be allowed to take place. This is sad though that I have never came across pure sustainable tableware in any other café that I have been to besides a fancy one thats a little pricey because that means that sustainability in this form is still very inaccessible for the masses.

After having lunch with my CMC friend Anna, I went to the closest ZW store to me, Rainbow Grocery Cooperative. This place looked huge from the outside and was to no surprise huge on the inside as well! It was like and actual grocery store like a sprouts type of deal but more with LA flower market vibes. It wasn't a minimalist aesthetic store whatsoever as I have been noting small ZW stores tend to take on, but more of a 'maximalist' style one if you will. It had absolutely everything I can imagine one might need for their home, body, and life that they would need from a regular grocery store like Vons. This wasn't a 'package free' store, it did have packaged items but it also had a lot, and I mean a lot, of bulk bins and jugs to choose from. They even sold the gallon jugs themselves. This was the biggest selection of liquid bulk items I have seen in any one store. They didn't have any glass bottles though for refills, I only saw plastic ones which is concerning as that is probably not the best option for reducing waste and being sustainable overall but a win is a win in bulk refills. I wandered around the store and came across the bulk foods section and my mind was blown! I had to stop and take it all in, there was so many bulk food items it was crazy. They had bulk molasses, syrups, and honeys, kimchi, sauerkraut, pickled garlic and onions, pickles, 20+ types of oils, over 50 medicinal herbs, remind you all in bulk! This is the first time I have seen bulk bins in the fridge, like the kimchi and sauerkraut! That is such a good idea as well. This store is probably a ZW'ers playground as they could purchase almost, if not, everything that they need for food, home, and beauty in bulk/package free! They also offered EBT eligibility in select items like medicinal herbs, making bulk and sustainable shopping more accessible!

• This was such a cool store to visit, something like this should be in every city. This is indeed a one-stop shop for low waste living. I would come here every Saturday if I were a working adult and load up on my needs.

• I purchased a metal hydro flask lid because my old one was a hand-me-down from a staff member of my high school and it was getting old and shedding.

Across from Rainbow Grocery Cooperative I saw a group of raised garden beds just on the sidewalk. That was cool to see as it shows that whoever put those there wants to bring more nature to their city! It was probably whatever business is in the building where the raised beds are located but I couldn't see any signs on the walls of it. They were just flowers and plants, not edibles, but I imagine if it were say a restaurant, edibles grown on the SF sidewalks next to a bridge might not be the best idea for health reasons...

I visited the Palace of Fine Arts for its beautiful nature that it brings to SF. It was truly grand, the columns were massive and enormously tall, the lake was very pretty and there were a lot of people visiting it and the park that surrounds it. Whenever I got to parks or places of nature in the states, there are almost always a ton of people there. Such as The Huntington, Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park, and many parks at that. Maybe this signifies that people really want connection to the outdoors, nature, and 'wilderness'.

I made a stop at the SF City Hall on my way to the other closest ZW store that was near to my hotel. It was a beautiful grand place. I have never seen anything like it. It does not compare to Claremont's City Hall! Their waste bins here consisted of recyclables, compostables, and waste. I reckon thats pretty good for SF and a public area as they have more options than just general waste.

• Near one of the bus stations I saw a newly planted tree. It had a sign on its supports reading: "I'm one of many young trees planted on arbor day 2025. Thanks to volunteers and my friends at San Francisco Public Works Bureau of Urban Forestry. One day, I'll grown up to provide more beauty and re-leaf to our SoMa and Tenderloin neighborhoods." This is a cool little sign I have yet to see on any other newly planted trees anywhere.

  • Next to this tree was a bike lane, painted in bright green and it also had a barrier between it and the traffic with the use of white plastic cones. I would feel safer riding on this path than the ones in Pomona but still maybe not as safe as it just looks prettier and doesn't offer the best distance or safety between cars and myself.

I got to Simple SF, a nice little store in a very nice downtown area that reminded me of the Claremont Village. This shop had a very nice bright vibe to it. It was somewhat minimalistic but also packed with a lot of good items! They are GREEN California Green Business Network San Francisco Certified! This is a certification that I have seen in some store in SoCal as well! I tried to get one for my ZW pop-up store but there was no CGBNetwork near Pomona that could certify businesses in said area.

• They had a plethora of options to choose from for bulk liquid refills including all basic home, body, and beauty liquids and creams. They also offered over 75 different ZW items for home, body, and beauty such as dryer balls, toothpaste tablets, reusable napkins, candles, and so much more! This is a great resource for people in this area to get their hands on ZW non-food essentials! Again, I think every city should have a ZW store at its disposal so that access to sustainable living would be available to all.

• I did my spiel and asked for the owner to the employee that was on shift but she said that the owner wasn't here but gave me her contact. I thanked her and continued to look around the store and admire their products. The SF Caltrain reminded me a lot of Singapore's metro in its interior. It looked very clean and relatively new, I enjoyed riding in it.

The next day, I stayed at another hotel that was closer to the Airport as the SF airport was a good drive from downtown SF. I got a matcha latte at Starbucks in the morning and was pleasantly surprised when I went to use their restroom and wash my hands. Their faucet was a 3 in 1 combo of water, soap, and a hand dryer! I had never seen this before and I think its pretty cool! This design makes a lot of sense I feel as it takes up less space, and is more efficient as it creates less water on the floor, is more convenient for the user, uses less materials and possibly less energy to run, and probably more. It seems pretty sustainable in my book but even small things like this when adopted by most businesses can make a difference. As they say, "start small." When I got my drink, it came in a fully compostable cup! I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, I had always wondered when Starbucks, a global leader in the Café world was going to adopt better sustainability practices as they must go through a brain numbing amount of cups every hour, day, and year! However, I do again want to know how much of a difference this makes in regards to sustainability as they will still end up in landfill.

As I was waiting for my flight in the SF airport, I came across a store in the terminal that I was in called Foggy Notion. I was eating lunch in the airport and looked closely at this shop from a far that caught my attention, I realized that some ZW dish brushed were in the window of the store and was happy to see that they had more sustainable items in their store! I finished eating lunch and made my way over to check the store out. They had a good selection of ZW items like dish brushes, reusable napkins, coasters, dish sponges, candles, body soaps, oral care, and more! It was more of a gift shop than anything but it was so cool to see these things at an airport! I asked the person at the counter if the owner was here and she so happened to be restocking things from boxes there in the store! She agreed for a quick interview as she was in a hurry and we got to it:

• This is what io pulled from their business on Yelp: "Artist & photographer Alissa Anderson opened Foggy Notion in 2011. Originally her sewing studio, it was a way to sell goods by herself and friends. Over the past decade it has evolved into a boutique with hundreds of handmade items including candles, skin care, wallets, jewelry, ceramics, cards, eco-friendly home goods, and so much more." "Foggy Notion is a woman-owned small business established in San Francisco's Inner Richmond in 2011. Our thoughtfully curated apothecary section is stocked with small organic skincare brands from around the US. Our non-toxic candle and home fragrance selection is one of the best in San Francisco. We have a growing amount of eco-friendly home and bath goods like plastic-free cleaning products, bamboo toothbrushes, reusable dishcloths & bags. Our pantry area is full of delicious teas, chocolates, jam, and salt. We carry a rotating selection of affordably priced vintage clothing and home goods. Handmade ceramics, jewelry, stained glass and cards make gifting easy. We take great pride in our helpful customer service and affordable prices. Stop by and let us help you find what you need!"

• Alissa was very bubbly and nice, a great person to talk to!

• Interview notes:

  • She noticed that there was lots of waste generated by traveling

  • Her products can also be used at home so they can purchase something they find they need here and take it back with them, not just for airport use

  • Her textile items are all vintage and second hand and they print on those for their merchandise

  • They get local items

    • she picks up her candles from her candle supplier on her way to work! how cool and efficient

  • Goal is to be plastic free

  • Small gifts that customers start to see and purchase can be a good entry way into low-waste living

  • They have been around for over 14 years now!

    • they offer plastic free travel necessities

    • they have this pop-up space in the airport for two years

      • SFO reaches out to small businesses in the area to offer them a two year pop-up store in the airport. This is such a cool idea of bringing small businesses to airports as usually I only see large businesses like luxury clothing and purse bags or small stores that offer many large brand items like colognes, and other mass manufactured 'cheap' gifts. Again, small businesses I would reckon are generally more sustainable than large businesses due to small batches, more love into each thing, and the small business & customer community.

  • In SFO, there are only metal water bottles! There are no plastic ones, I had not noticed this until she mentioned it, how cool is that! This seems like a great swap, drinking out of a can even makes me feel cooler so I would definitely love this if I were a frequent purchaser of water. Talking about water, they did have a water bottle filler with like 4 spouts on all sides of a water filler station in the middle of the terminal which I thought was cool as it makes filling your reusable water bottle more accessible and known to the public.

  • There is currently no compost in SFO, as that would be hard to implement with people most likely now caring and putting non-compostables in the compost bins which would soil the whole batch and have to be thrown out.

    • I wonder if Americans are more careless for simple systems like sorting their waste, and where this carelessness comes from and why it hasn't changed.

  • SF banned plastic water bottles in all the city! I did not know or realize this until she said it. I think that because I carry my water bottle around with me literally everywhere I go, I don't pay attention to single-use water bottles sold at places. This is beautiful though, If a metropolis like SF can do it, surely LA can also do it!

    • The city of SF eliminated 100+ tons of plastic waste in the city per month by banning these!

  • She goes out of her way to do things that other business owner don't want to do such as keeping and folding all packing paper that they receive in orders and think outside the box on how to lower their waste and carbon footprint as a business. She says that people catch on and will follow suit if they see more people carrying like this. I say monkey see monkey do.

SF other notes:

• Chinatown was the dirtiest part of SF that I saw while in SF

  • there was rubbish on the floors and no one seemed to care

• The smaller footprint of the homes and buildings in SF might be a good thing in terms of their land space that they take up which might be more sustainable as they aren't consuming all the land in the area for big backyards and huge homes but also that leads to just a massive block of concrete and buildings with minimal vegetation or nature that was here before.

• They have a good amount of trains I reckon but some things were easier to walk to or if it was a little farther then an uber was more convenient.

  • The thing I didn't like about the SF metro though is that you have to get a Clipper Card to use the metro and transport options, this took me 20 minutes to figure out and so many unnecessary steps, if it were like Singapore things would be a lot easier.

  • Another con that I disliked was that you had to wait around 5-20 minutes for the next tranport option if you missed it, unlike SG or some other places I visited where there was options every 5 minutes.

  • Some bus stops here in SF were not even marked! I had trouble finding one bus stop and had to run to it when I saw the bus stop there, there was no pole, or signage at all, how was that even a bus stop! They need better markings and systems for public transport to make it accessible and easy to use which is the whole point of such systems!

• SFO had a yoga room, which I utilized before my flight because when theres time, place, and manner to yoga, you yoga. This is cool as it supports 'slow living' which I reckon closely ties with a more sustainable lifestyle weather that be sustainable in terms of physical and/or mental health, monetarily, or the environment.