Seattle government now going through citizens’ trash for public shaming, revenue

A new law in Seattle apparently has authorities going through trash to see if you have thrown away leftover food.

If you have, they will tag the garbage cans.

Humiliation and labeling will now begin.

The shame of it.

Micro-management deluxe !!


Seattle government now going through citizens’ trash for public shaming, revenue

Sure, the incentive to compost is the putative reason for this regulation, but exactly how is it enforced? In order for city officials and trash collectors to know you have committed the civic sin of disposing of leftover food in your trashcan, they have to examine the contents of your trashcan. Let’s hope the citizens of Seattle and trash collectors can come to some kind of silent truce over this. Do they collectors really want to examine every load they dump into the truck for transgressions? (Lord help us, the city probably offers a bonus of taxpayer money for tagging violators.)

In Seattle, wasting food will now earn you a scarlet letter — well, a scarlet tag, to be more accurate.

The bright red tag, posted on a garbage bin, tells everyone who sees it that you’ve violated a new city law that makes it illegal to put food into trash cans.

“I’m sure neighbors are going to see these on their other neighbors’ cans,” says Rodney Watkins, a lead driver for Recology CleanScapes, a waste contractor for the city. He’s on the front lines of enforcing these rules.

Are there any Neighborhood Watch Groups forming yet?

a reply to: xuenchen


What a #ing joke, when will America stand up and say enough is enough?

a reply to: xuenchen

Start investing in trash cans with hidden compartments.

I've always wondered if going through trash would be a good idea or not. After it has been taken to the dump and piled up though. That way the source of the trash remains anonymous. The dumps should be filtering and separating the trash from the recyclables and possible other useful things. Also, think of the potential types of criminal evidence they could recover. Or bodies.. (it happens).

When I was in elementary school, our class walked (it was a small town) to the sewage plant for a field trip. There I saw two men in what looked like hazmat suits standing in and working (not sure what they were doing) in crap. I'm positive digging through the trash would be more enjoyable even if the smells are comparable.

Not sure how cost effective doing all that would be though.

a reply to: xuenchen

Dry I trashed a 2 week old ham that was mostly devoid of anything but bone....honestly though....you are going to look and brand me for it?

a reply to: xuenchen

i wonder how they will go about advertising those positions .hmmm...maybe along the lines of...
"trash trawlers wanted,must have a passion for food waste and healthy flare for humiliating others"

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

So much trolling potential, the things you could put in bins to # with people's minds if you know someone will be going through it hahaha.

Humiliate me , i will see you in court and bring the evidence . Then prove its mine .

Thread stealer! You are forgiven.

Any household with more than 10 percent food in its garbage earns a bright red tag notifying it of the infraction.

Yeah, I get one of those and a fine and I'm suing. PROVE IT. PROVE that there was actually 10 percent food waste in my trash. Pictures aren't going to prove it. You would need to have the entire contents of my garbage can shipped off to a lab, with an airtight chain of custody, etc. I would be willing to shell out $10,000 in legal fees (out of principal), and I doubt I would need even need to because somewhere there are a few lawyers champing at the bit over this. I get that it's not a big fine, it's the freaking principal.

How are they going to justify this? Garbage men are now going to have to add extra time, to do the same job, in the same amount of time, for the same pay. Some citizen is going to measure, put out their trash, then sue. There is no way a garbage man is going to be able to gauge this accurately. 10 percent is a rather small number.

Lets say I have a bunch of bubble wrap. I throw it out, along with a steak. The steak weighs more. I wasn't home this week, and that's all the trash I have. Kiss my ass.

Tagging the garbage cans is BS too. If you're trying to waste time you might as well have the garbage guys write me a handwritten note and put it in my mailbox. I don't freaking care what my neighbors think, but I'm sure many will. I'm so glad I'm not living in Seattle. I'm VERY close, but we seem to have a little more sense in Redmond/Bellevue.

a reply to: xuenchen There is a simple solution, dump your garbage on the lawns of the city council members and the Mayor's house as well.

a reply to: Lladdwr

I like this.

When I first read about it I was thinking up the nastiest garbage combinations possible, but then I realized it's not at all the fault of the garbage collectors. They probably hate this more than the rest of us.

Seattle city council and the mayor are crapbirds.

seattlepi.com

any single-family trash container with more than 10 percent recyclables or food waste by volume will face a $1 fine on the next garbage bill.

Multi-family property owners with too much food waste in trash will get up to two warning notices, and then a $50 fine.

That system of warnings and $50 fines will also apply to businesses. Currently only businesses that serve food are required to sort food scraps and waste for composting. The new law will require all types of businesses to do that.

Public trash cans will be exempt from the new ordinance. Garbage containers in customer dining areas will also be exempt, if a business provides food-waste composting containers.

seattletimes.com

The council vote to pass the new composting measure was a unanimous 9-to-0. No public hearing was required.

Wow, wonder if the city council is up for reelection any time soon... :/

a reply to: xuenchen

Does it say why? I would assume some critters? Rats, racoons, boars?
Yeah it is really shamefull when a city has to make a law about somehing so basic and enforce it, just because people nowadays are so stupid, they can't keep the wild beasts away from their kids and gardens by themselfes anymore... Where has common sense gone? Or are Americans really the dumbest nation under the sun?

a reply to: Elton

Oh shoot I thought it was $1 fine. I'm pretty sure that's what they said initially.

F U very much Seattle govt.

a reply to: Peeple

Seattle is falling short of its goal to recycle and compost 60 percent of its waste by 2015. The years-long bump in recycling has dropped, and only 56 percent of waste was diverted in 2013. Seattle sends about 100,000 tons of food waste to a landfill per year.

Not critters, setting a goal I guess...

a reply to: Elton

Oh okay, a recycling problem, well I am not firm in american waste managment, don't you have also different types of bins, you know one for plastic, one for paper and one for glass and one for cartboard and one for compost and so on? Let's talk garbage...

The part that seems particularly bad is: Multi-family property owners with too much food waste in trash will get up to two warning notices, and then a $50 fine.

How are apartment dwellers supposed to compost? So the city can fine the apartment owner $50.00 (per dumpster or property? Is not clear). Presumably they can fine every month and apartments will pass fee on to tenants and city can collect tons of cash.

EDIT: I hope I am misunderstanding what 'Multi-family property' means.

Go ahead and tag my cans. I could care less.

a reply to: xuenchen

Here is a link from a less sketchy news source, I had to do some digging around to find something that didn't sound like a hoax:

Under the new rules, collectors can take a cursory look each time they dump trash into a garbage truck.

If they see compostable items make up 10 percent or more of the trash, they’ll enter the violation into a computer system their trucks already carry, and will leave a ticket on the garbage bin that says to expect a $1 fine on the next garbage bill.

Apartment buildings and businesses will be subject to the same 10 percent threshold but will get two warnings before they are fined. A third violation will result in a $50 fine. Dumpsters there will be checked by inspectors on a random basis.

The Seattle Times

My thoughts on this are the same as many on this thread - first I did research to make sure the claim was accurate, and finding that it seems to be, I am especially against the $50.00 fine for a third-time violation. That could really hurt some poor people's finances for the month.

I also think it will be a bit much for the trash collectors to have to check all of those bins and make what has to be a rough estimate. Plus, going through the citizens' garbage is a bit much.

This will back fire somehow. People are basically lazy and will throw out everything without any thought. They will see illegal dumping areas crop-up all over the place. The whole city will look like a back alley in Detroit soon.

Large smelly "compost" heaps in backyards will bring in rats and other vermin, they will fine you for that too of course. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Time to move out of the area or get politically active to the max.