[econjack]

I haven't read the Constitution recently, but is there really an article that says the states can force its citizens to separate its garbage, or is that just a power an apathetic public granted them?

[goldstategop]

Peter McWilliams wrote some years ago, in a free country, the government has no business telling you what you can do as an individual if it doesn't harm others. Consensual crimes are by definition, absurd. He would be distressed to learn their scope if anything, has vastly expanded today.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Huck]

I haven't read the Constitution recently, but is there really an article that says the states can force its citizens to separate its garbage, or is that just a power an apathetic public granted them?

The Constitution was not intended to tell states what they can and can't do. States were considered to be their own individual republics. The Constitution was intended to define the purpose, scope, and design of the common national/federal gubmint.

The framers would have considered the issue of how to dispose of garbage as a state issue, for the people of each state to decide through their own local or state gubmints. The national gubmint is only supposed to deal with issues impacting the Union of states, where mutual governance was thought to be necessary for the peaceful and successful preservation of the Union.

If you like, you could say the 10th amendment provides that garbage disposal is a state or local issue, outside the jurisdiction of the national gubmint.