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

[flowers]

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/01/27/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.

    Seattle is the first city in the nation to fine homeowners for not properly sorting their garbage. The law took effect on Jan. 1 as a bid to keep food out of landfills. Other cities like San Francisco and Vancouver mandate composting, but don’t penalize homeowners directly.

    As Watkins made the rounds in Maple Leaf, a residential neighborhood of Seattle, earlier this month, he appeared disheartened to find an entire red velvet cake in someone’s trash bin. Any household with more than 10 percent food in its garbage earns a bright red tag notifying it of the infraction.

So, the collectors not only have to examine your trash, but examine it closely enough to determine if 10 percent of it amounts to food. NPR’s reporting disputes my assumption, but what the collector is really saying below is he’s either painstakingly rifling through trash cans or ignoring the 10-percent rule and profligately offering tags and fines. Neither is good:

    Watkins doesn’t have to comb through the trash — the forbidden items are plain to see.

    “You can see all the oranges and coffee grounds,” he says, raising one lid. “All that makes great compost. You can put that in your compost bin and buy it back next year in a bag and put it in your garden.”

I thought the trash police wouldn't be in my lifetime. Yet here it is.

[Millee]

“You can see all the oranges and coffee grounds,” he says, raising one lid. “All that makes great compost. You can put that in your compost bin and buy it back next year in a bag and put it in your garden.”

I can buy back my own garbage????  What in the ever loving hell is going on in this country?????? 

[aligncare]

Collectivism gets worse over time as nannies grab more and more of your liberty.

Makes me want to shout

 :screaming2:

[flowers]

“You can see all the oranges and coffee grounds,” he says, raising one lid. “All that makes great compost. You can put that in your compost bin and buy it back next year in a bag and put it in your garden.”

I can buy back my own garbage????  What in the ever loving hell is going on in this country??????

That is the exact sentence that threw me off as well.. buy it back?

[mountaineer]

We compost coffee grounds, vegetable peels, etc., but red velvet cake?!?

[Oceander]

Were I out there, I would have pre-emptively plastered my cans with bright red labels, and worn them with pride.

Effing liberals.

[ABX]

Collectivism gets worse over time as nannies grab more and more of your liberty.

Makes me want to shout

 :screaming2:

I think it would be a shorter list to say what we actually are free to do than what the nannies regulate. Breathing is the only thing that comes to mind, but now, just for existing, the nannies require I buy government mandated health insurance from a handful of monopolies who line said politicians pockets.

If I checked out of society, moved to the middle of no where with absolutely no possessions, no property, no job, I would still be beholding to government nanny regulators.

[ABX]

We compost coffee grounds, vegetable peels, etc., but red velvet cake?!?

What if someone mostly eats meat and their food trash is mostly bones and cut-off scraps. You can't compost meat. Will their regulators sift through the food products separating the meat and bones from compostable items? 

[Oceander]

What if someone mostly eats meat and their food trash is mostly bones and cut-off scraps. You can't compost meat. Will their regulators sift through the food products separating the meat and bones from compostable items? 

That's 'cause your typical nanny-fascist liberal is too pc to eat meat - nothing but veggies for them (and red velvet cake, I suppose). 

[ABX]

That's 'cause your typical nanny-fascist liberal is too pc to eat meat - nothing but veggies for them (and red velvet cake, I suppose).

Red Velvet Cake sounds so elitist and 1%.

:p

[Dexter]

No, not the red tag; anything but that! My life will be ruined if my neighbors find out I'm not separating my trash into compost bins for my garden.

[rangerrebew]

Are You A Criminal? City Sends Out Private Company To Rifle Through Your Garbage To Find Out

By Robert Gehl, January 28, 2015.


Americans are concerned about their government spying on them. Tapping their phones, hijacking their wi-fi and mining their medical records are not just theoretical concerns – they’re actually happening right now.

And while attention is turned to President Obama and his insatiable desire to sacrifice your personal liberties for national security, in the alley behind your house, a private company’s been digging through your garbage looking for incriminating evidence.

Go check. They’re not? They will soon.

The city of Seattle has hired a private company to rifle through people’s garbage cans looking for “food waste.” If your trash container contains more than 10 percent of the offensive trash – and even “food-stained” garbage like soiled napkins – your curbside garbage bin will be tagged with a bright red sticker intended to shame you and you’ll be fined $1 on your next bill.

It’s an effort to reduce the amount of food waste in landfills – which is expensive and heavy to haul around, fills up our city dumps and gives off the scary global-warming gas methane.

In an NPR article, they claim the private contractors “don’t have to comb through the trash,” because they can see violations. But unless these folks have X-Ray vision, they’re not really enforcing the law.

So while they’re scrounging for banana peels and your half-eaten Hungry Man, what else will these authorized government monitors find? An edition of Barely Legal? A copy of The Anarchist Cookbook? Maybe a Home Depot receipt showing you bought some fertilizer? Because I’ll bet you that these private contractors are either encouraged – or required – to report “suspicious” garbage to the city.

Other cities ban disposing of food waste in garbage cans too. Portland, San Francisco and New York all have similar laws – so it’s an idea whose time has come.

And while Americans are closing their curtains to prying eyes on the street, the government is digging through your trash in the back – seeing what they can find.

http://downtrend.com/robertgehl/are-you-a-criminal-city-sends-out-private-company-to-rifle-through-your-garbage-to-find-out