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Seattle to fine residents for not composting

Top Cat

Top Cat

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Don't throw away those corn cobs. Jeesh!

SEATTLE — Seattle residents who fail to separate food waste from trash will be fined.
The City Council voted Monday to impose the fines for not composting.
When the ordinance goes into effect next year, homeowners found with food scraps in their trash will be fined $1 for each violation KING reported Tuesday. The fine is up to $50 for a business or apartment complex.
Seattle Public Utilities estimates that about a third to one-half of what now goes in the trash should be recycled or put in compost bins.
The new law is aimed at helping Seattle reach its goal of having a recycling rate of 60 percent by 2015. The change is expected to generate an additional 38,000 tons of compost material every year.
San Francisco also has a mandatory composting ordinance.
Currently, residents of single-family homes in Seattle are encouraged but not required to dispose of food waste and some paper products in compost bins, The Seattle Times reported. Apartment buildings must have compost bins available, but residents of apartment buildings aren't required to use them. Businesses aren't subject to any composting requirements,


Under the new rules, collectors will take a look when they dump trash into a garbage truck. If they see more than 10 percent of the trash should be composted, they'll enter the violation into a computer and leave a ticket on the bin that says expect a $1 fine on the next garbage bill.
Collectors will begin tagging garbage bins with warnings Jan. 1. Fines start until July 1.
Seattle Public Utilities asked the council to consider the ordinance because the agency is falling short of its recycling and composting goals. The council vote was 9-to-0. No public hearing was required.
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SEATTLE: Seattle to fine residents for not composting | National Business News | The Bellingham Herald
 
What's so hard about doing these things that a city needs to baby its people...
 
I generally favor composting myself, better for the environment, but instituting a fine for not doing so? That's just ridiculous.
 
ocean515 said:
Let's see, living wages, composting....

What an interesting journey Seattle has embarked upon.
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SF has the composting law too. Part of the problem is the land fills in WA are so damned expensive. Subsequently garbage prices are stupid expensive. But fining people is absurd.
 
Top Cat said:
SF has the composting law too. Part of the problem is the land fills in WA are so damned expensive. Subsequently garbage prices are stupid expensive. But fining people is absurd.
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Who knew last nights dinner could be Seattle's next revenue source? Next thing you know they will be taxing air. No wait....
 
Top Cat said:
SF has the composting law too. Part of the problem is the land fills in WA are so damned expensive. Subsequently garbage prices are stupid expensive. But fining people is absurd.
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To be fair, if garbage prices really were too expensive, people would be composting/recycling to save money on their own. But then you would have a different problem.

Cleveland did something like this about 10 years ago. They put out tons of adverts and notices for people to conserve water. People listened, and the city rewarded them by doubling water rates due to "lower consumption".
 
I have a question about this: Who gets to use the compost?? I'm big fan of composting and I understand just how much compost a household can produce in a year. I actually have to haul out dirt from my raised bed garden every year to have room for the compost I produce. So if you take a city the size of Seattle and require everyone to compost, that's a LOT of compost. Most people can't use that much compost, especially, if they're apartment dwellers. So, who's getting this "black gold"?
 
Samhain said:
To be fair, if garbage prices really were too expensive, people would be composting/recycling to save money on their own. But then you would have a different problem.

Cleveland did something like this about 10 years ago. They put out tons of adverts and notices for people to conserve water. People listened, and the city rewarded them by doubling water rates due to "lower consumption".
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Living in the utopia that is Cleveland should be reward enough. :lamo
 
Seattle residents if you don't like laws created by the city,[ trash pickup is not a right] then get rid of the city counsel and elect a new one which will repeal such laws.
 
faithful_servant said:
I have a question about this: Who gets to use the compost?? I'm big fan of composting and I understand just how much compost a household can produce in a year. I actually have to haul out dirt from my raised bed garden every year to have room for the compost I produce. So if you take a city the size of Seattle and require everyone to compost, that's a LOT of compost. Most people can't use that much compost, especially, if they're apartment dwellers. So, who's getting this "black gold"?
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Do people that live in apartments use compost for anything?
 
ernst barkmann said:
Seattle residents if you don't like laws created by the city,[ trash pickup is not a right] then get rid of the city counsel and elect a new one which will repeal such laws.
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Well there you have it.
 
I wonder if the incidence of littering will go up.
 
Samhain said:
To be fair, if garbage prices really were too expensive, people would be composting/recycling to save money on their own. But then you would have a different problem.

Cleveland did something like this about 10 years ago. They put out tons of adverts and notices for people to conserve water. People listened, and the city rewarded them by doubling water rates due to "lower consumption".
Click to expand...
The same thing will happen with gasoline as cars become more fuel efficient. We can also expect a nice bump in utility prices should the electric car ever become a viable alternative. Governments at every level have a certain amount of money that they need to collect one way or another. If enough people quit smoking, the revenue from tobacco taxes dries up. If fuel consumption decreases, the revenue from gasoline taxes decreases with it, and so on. It's simply a matter of finding something new to tax or increasing the tax rate on something that is already taxed to balance out the lost revenue.
 
faithful_servant said:
I have a question about this: Who gets to use the compost?? I'm big fan of composting and I understand just how much compost a household can produce in a year. I actually have to haul out dirt from my raised bed garden every year to have room for the compost I produce. So if you take a city the size of Seattle and require everyone to compost, that's a LOT of compost. Most people can't use that much compost, especially, if they're apartment dwellers. So, who's getting this "black gold"?
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In our area, they collect green waste, make compost, then sell it to those who want it. They also make ground cover out of bark and shredded tree limbs. I suppose the local farmers buy a lot of it as well.
 
Jack Fabulous said:
The same thing will happen with gasoline as cars become more fuel efficient. We can also expect a nice bump in utility prices should the electric car ever become a viable alternative. Governments at every level have a certain amount of money that they need to collect one way or another. If enough people quit smoking, the revenue from tobacco taxes dries up. If fuel consumption decreases, the revenue from gasoline taxes decreases with it, and so on. It's simply a matter of finding something new to tax or increasing the tax rate on something that is already taxed to balance out the lost revenue.
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already happening.....the average family sedan now gets about twice the mileage from those of the 60's and 70's. OTOH, there are probably twice the cars on the road. The USA has always had cheaper fuel than those in the EU, but owning a car there is not as common as here.
 
It's hard to remember to do this when you're stoned out of your gourd.
 
Top Cat said:
Don't throw away those corn cobs. Jeesh!




SEATTLE: Seattle to fine residents for not composting | National Business News | The Bellingham Herald
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The single most definitive trait of the left is control. This is how it starts.

Wish I could say this wasn't commonplace in California, there are govt workers who make the rounds looking for people watering their lawns or washing their cars, or using plastic bags, etc. The govt encourages people to snitch-and they do.
 
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