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 ...
Dr. Johnny Fever told his WKRP listeners to do just that! — and they did!
What you describe certainly does exist, but it is hardly as universal as stated. I see more and more people rejecting the PC/enviro nonsense. And, FWIW, the garbage is still collected weekly here in Stuttgart; the bins are of sufficient size and quantity and never overfilled. I’m surprized that the Bavarians of all people would be such wusses.
Two words: Plasma Gasification
I've got to think Germans would be more neat and orderly whether they were separating their trash or not.
Don’t kid yourself, this is Seattle and they love this kind of stuff.
I guess schools will have red tags with Michelle’s lunch program!!!
People will just flush it down the toilet.
What about that really nasty shrimp chow mein left over from the chinese take out that you for got about in the back of your fridge for two weeks.
You know, the one that smells like something died in your trash can?
I saw a TV set on a traffic island near me.
Probably dumped at 3:00 AM.
Pretty funny IMHO.
.
Chop ‘n flush, like a king-sized garbage disposal.
The UN is right about population for all the wrong reasons.
I loved that episode - and it has more heft with liberals because Penn and Teller are liberal/libertarian.
Their global warming is hype episode is also great.
This becomes an interesting basis for setting up neighborhood pig co-ops to have an “eco-friendly” way to dispose of food waste, and then periodically take the pigs to a butcher for processing into more food.
“Germany is utterly obsessed with Green issues”
The irony there is that Germany also buys high sulpher coal that is transported from the US. Where it isn’t legal to burn.
It’s always fun to point this out, loudly, during trips to Louisville and seeing large full coal barges passing each other on the Ohio River. The downriver ones taking high sulfer coal to New Orleans for shipment to Germany while the upriver ones taking low sulfer coal to the local and regional electric plants.
I had a crazy neighbor once who would dust off her mail box, wash her tin cans, plastic bottles before disposing and Windex her electric meter, etc. She sure was a cleaning fool.
My husband once repaired her air conditioner and she drove him crazy with the vacuum while he was working on it.
Penn and Teller are NOT Liberals. They are, however, rather staunch Libertarians. . .
Why not just have your own compost bin?
See comment #9
Kind of like inheritance tax. You buy the food, compost it and then buy it again.
Gift wrap it and put it on the back seat of a car with windows open or top down. It will disappear.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.