Posted on 12/13/2011 9:03:48 PM PST by bamahead
WASHINGTON - It's the law in D.C. - recycle or face a fine from the Department of Public Works. But is enforcement of the law going too far?
Dupont Circle resident Patricia White says she has been fined eight times for throwing homemade cat litter in her trash. The fines total $2,000. White says she shreds old newspaper and junk mail to use as cat litter. She believes she is helping the environment by reusing the paper and avoiding cat litter you will find in stores.
After being fined several times, White says she called the Department of Public Works inspector who issued the tickets. According to White, the inspector admitted to digging through trash looking for violations. White even appealed the violations in D.C. court. Judge Audrey Jenkins agreed with the inspector after White explained the situation. FOX 5 tried to reach Judge Jenkins, but her office has declined to comment.
D.C. Council Member Jack Evans says DPW is going too far with its recycling enforcement. He demanded a meeting with DPW Director Bill Howland to discuss White's case.
White says she will continue to fight the citations and continue to dispose of her cat's litter in the trash and not in the recycling bin.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxdc.com ...

Oh, yea! By all means let’s give these people full representation in both houses!
hahaha. I bet the dingbat votes democrat and donates to greenpeace
Easy to fix.
Put the paper in the recycling bin.
Never mind that its loaded with kitty crap...
She’s got to buy a recycler’s license or sumfin.
Huh?
Good thing too. It has to be a violation of Federal EPA Hazmat regs to throw cat shit in the recycle bin.
So just what are you supposed to do with it?
Lost enough freedoms yet? Paying for enough useless things and public employees yet? I’d say we have gone far enough when we collect enough tax money to pay for people to dig through trash looking for cat crap.
You are so right.
I’d probably be thinking about throwing away a bear trap the week after. A set bear trap.
I think I’d go into the maggot farming business and give the sorry bastards something really interesting to find while they are digging in the trash looking for violations.
Another alternative is to take it to the dumpsters at chitty hall for disposal or carry it in fast food bags to the office of the inspectors and the judge.
All public employees need to be term limited so they can experience the private sector. Retire public pension plans and benefits. We are creating a dependent class of elites that are a cancer on society. It takes about one day to train a public works worker. Most private sector workers are more than qualified to do this job for two years and then return to the private sector.
Amazing. I throw whatever I want in the trash (we don’t have recycling bins) and no one looks at it.
Simple to fix this problem, just put the shredded paper in the recycle bin. You get to be rid of the trash and they get to sort through your cat’s s##t. Not only do you get to be green but you have the dividend of sending a message to the Public Works Department in DC. I say if they are going to give you crap, just give it right back and more. Put a wastepaper basket in your bathroom, like they do south of the boarder and let them have all the paper.
Pretty green huh, and disgusting.
Kitty litter ping.
The city’s stance is she should be recycling the cat poop & pee laden paper, not tossing it.
How do you recycle cat feces?
Feed ‘em back to the cat?
(yeah, okay, I know it might work with dogs . . .)
That would be “entrapment”. :)
bfl
I was thinking the same thing!!!
I am told that in DC you are not supposed to recycle pizza boxes because of the food particles stuck to the cardboard. Why would they want cat litter in the recycle bins. Oh, I get it, rats eat pizza, but run away from cat waste.
That’s ridiculous. I can guarantee that no one working at a recycling center wants to deal with paper soaked in cat urine or mixed with cat feces. Nor is this type of paper recyclable, since materials contaminated with biological waste are NOT recyclable (even if sterilized).
So what if the woman wants to save a few bucks by shredding paper to use as cat litter? If her cats will use it, fantastic. It’s expensive enough to live in DC as it is.
So the inspector digs through the trash; just think of the inventive minds working on what can be put in the trash waiting for inquiring hands.
In general, recycling is more about indoctrination than anything else. A daily ritual that reinforces the religion of deep ecology. In this particular case, though, I think we have a bureaucrat who WILL be obeyed.
Since this inspector has nothing to do but dig through trash, perhaps his job description should include sorting the trash. After all, the homeowner is paying the inspector's wages and should get something of value for his "work."
You get what you vote for, sister.
A set bear trap can get you in a lot of trouble. Try loose broken glass mixed in with your refuse instead.
Insanity.
The 5 boroughs of NYC do the same thing. My mother used to live in the Bronx and her niece was fined for putting a plastic hanger in the “plastic recycle” bin....reason, that PLASTIC hanger was garbage!!!
The 5 boroughs of NYC do the same thing. My mother used to live in the Bronx and her niece was fined for putting a plastic hanger in the “plastic recycle” bin....reason, that PLASTIC hanger was garbage!!!
DPW recycling investigators are looking for evidence of co-mingling of trash with recyclables.”
It would seem to me that the biological wastes are NOT recyclable, yet the DC environazi wants her to comingle trash with recyclables. So no matter what she does, she can be fined.
Wonder what she did in the past to earn this regulator’s ire!
It seems to me, once they find you have "broken the rule" once, they figure you'll do it again, so they will continually search through your garbage.
That's how it works in NYC anyway.
“So what if the woman wants to save a few bucks by shredding paper to use as cat litter? If her cats will use it, fantastic. Its expensive enough to live in DC as it is.”
I’d hate to visit her house! I imagine there’s nothing in that recycled paper that covers the smell of cat urine...
Sounds like revenue enhancement. As a freeper whose name I can’t remember said, there’s not a dollar in your pocket that the municipality - any municipality - doesn’t think isn’t rightfully theirs.
Remember this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq58zS4_jvM
Green Police in Cleveland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91Au4C0H7EY
“the inspector admitted to digging through trash looking for violations.”
This reminds me of the BTK killer......control freak.
We received these big bins that the truck can pick up automatically. I hate the damn things. I used to just leave my bags at the curb and the trash man picked it up. So the Dumtards in my city decided to eliminate the 2nd guy, but tell us that it is a green solution for improved gas mileage...
I’m supposed to be happy to try and roll that damn thing through snow, back and forth, and when they leave the lid open have to empty out the rain. Let alone I haven’t figured out how I am going to clean it....I can’t even reach the bottome. I’m supposed to be happy about this because they will produce less exhaustion.
Yet, where they used to take one trip down my street, with a guy slinging bags into the truck, now they have to take 2 trips down my street so the auto arm can pick up on each side. Their claim of less pollution is crap!
Stick a couple of mousetraps strategically in the trash. Then when someone is poking around they might hurt their fingers, and learn a lesson.
my dog likes the litter version- like a crunchy tootsie roll to her.
I think this paper varitey would be more like opening presents to her.
It begins with an "Elect me and I will give you free, money, housing, drugs, "health care" and on and on. Once the sheep consider themselves property of the Government, only bad things happen to them from that point on.An unfortunately, we have too many of them in the United States today.
That about sums it up for me...
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