Posted on 01/28/2015 4:05:22 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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.
"Right now, I'm tagging probably every fifth can," Watkins says. "I don't know if that's just the holidays, or the fact that I'm actually paying a lot more attention."
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."
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
I guess the urge to put a dye pack in the trash should be resisted...
You can only push people so far before they find innovative ways around restrictions; I see people dump crap (old oil from oil changes, garbage bags from cars that have plastics mixed with regular trash) into cans at parks and work.
And yet, you cannot in many places use the food to feed the homeless. You cannot in many places give it away to feed livestock. You certainly cannot store it for any length of time. You cannot throw it away. LOL!
Seattle must be aiming to have the cleanest garbage in the country. Perhaps they’ll next require subjects to wash their garbage before placing it in the trash can.
I live on the edge of the Meadowlands here in northern NJ, and for decades people have used them as the dumping grounds for such regulated garbage. Any vacant lots in the area need concrete barriers to avoid having people dump old appliances and such in the middle of the night.
Great way to get leftovers dumped in city parks and gutters in front of city hall.
Perhaps all that garbage can be placed reverentially on the steps of city hall, as an offering to our betters.
So you compost it and then buy it back? Where does buying become involved?
Liberal paradise.
But the majority of voters in Seattle seem to support this supreme idiocy. Or they wouldn't elect the scum-filth leftists who invent these maximum idiotic schemes.
Cat litter in every bag!
Anybody recall the outrage of America at this stupid commercial. How many times did we hear just a few short years ago...stuff like this would never happen.
Well, it is happening. And I can tell you from a recent city meeting this business of tagging and fining garbage bins is not going to only be happening in Seattle. The youngsters, the college crowd, etcetera are all well indoctrinated and looking to put their foot down and that foot isn't going to be coming down in a slipper, but a boot.
It truly frightened me when one of these newly minted young adults seriously asked if people could be ARRESTED for not putting out their green recycle bin! Here in my city the idiots are talking of making our small downtown area a car free zone! Oh how exciting, just foot traffic and bikes! I am sure all the restaurants will be so pleased with that outcome.
My point is it is coming with this generation.
> So you compost it and then buy it back? Where does buying become involved?
Can’t compost scrap foods where I live. The county will give you a ticket. They claim that compost piles attract rats. (The rats eat the food and burrow into the pile for warmth.)
Socialism runs contrary to human nature, so people have to be forced to participate. That force become fascism.
The only thing stupid about the commercial was the suggestion that if you drive a “clean” car, the Green Police would leave you alone.
Even if you have a Diesel car, a hybrid, or an EV in your driveway, they will still search your trash.
Germany is utterly obsessed with green issues. They profoundly believe in global warming, uniformly fear fracking and simply will not even listen to contrary views, they have gone bio crazy spending absurd amounts for mottled fruits and vegetables and convinced that American genetic crops are about to consume the world. They have converted my daughter of 15 into a vegetarian by showing films in school.
All of this gains much traction in the school system especially in the Waldorf schools which are extremely left-wing and extremely green.
However, if there is a price to pay in personal liberty there is also a gain in the universal cleanliness and order of the environment which is not to be despised in comparison to the universal squalor we find in American cities.
My conclusion: if you want to have personal liberty without squalor, you cannot have population density, in fact, you cannot have large population.
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