San Francisco plan to inspect residents' garbage

mercury news ^ | Aug 1, 2008 | The Associated Press

[ichabod1]

Once you start paying the Danegelt, you never get rid of the Dane.

[sionnsar]

We had a nice, free country once.

That we did. Once.

[sionnsar]

Not sure of the rates here (not in my division of the duties — I earn the money, not spend it *\;-), but I believe yard waste (LOL — it goes into the woods) & recyclables are at least included.

[PA Engineer]

Down here, we just let all the homeless pick out all the recyclables out of our trashbins.

I got a new headline:

Mayor Gavin Newsom is starving the homeless!

[NMR Guy]

Down here, we just let all the homeless pick out all the recyclables out of our trashbins.

Unfortunately, in San Francisco, at times when the amount of recyclables collected from the recycle cans is too low, our fees are increased because the recycling program fails to collect enough to pay for itself.

The problem is our cans get raided every week after they are put out. It's not by homeless folks, it's by cheap people collecting them to make money. So the raiders make money, and everyone in the neighborhood has to pay more to the trash collection company.

[junkman_106]

Doesn’t work for me either. Where ya been? Missed your pithy comments. You make me yearn for the wilds of Hayward, where the Indian casinos roam (and the wild Muskie eat ducks!)

[ApplegateRanch]

So the raiders make money, and everyone in the neighborhood has to pay more to the trash collection company.

So cut out the middle man, and sell the crap yourself, and quit paying the company.

[truthguy]

I saw a TV show once that offered a better solution to the solid waste problem. The truck that collected the garbage had a special made arm which could pick up the garbage container and weight the garbage. You were billed on the weight of your garbage. There were separate containers for recyclables. For those there was no charge. This was a big incentive to segregate the throw away items from those that could be recycled. When this was implemented the volume of throw away waste declined tremendously and the volume of recyclables increased tremendously.

[dynachrome]

“the volume of recyclables increased tremendously”

Well, then, everything is recyclable!

No fee!

[Navy Patriot]

you never get rid of the Dane.

Unfortunately.

[mimaw]

I sure hope the wear hazmat suits. Can you just imagine the disease infested garbage produced by the scum that lives in San Francisco?

[LiberConservative]

“Thou shalt separate zee recyclables from zee trash. Verstehen?”

[Chode]

because inspecting for ILLEGAL ALIENS is too much like work...

[ErnBatavia]

Being as SF is a “sanctuary-latex-free city”, ain’t nobody gonna find too many recyclable scumbags — er, um — used condominiums, or whatever those gadgets are called.

[HighlyOpinionated]

I live in a County in North Georgia. USofA. I'm about to tell you something that will cause some of you to get a bad headache. In my County, if "someone" reports to the Dept of Family and Children Service that you have an "unkempt" child, a DFCS Child Protective Service Worker can enter your house and inspect it. Definition of "unkempt" child is "normal five year old."

Your child or children can be removed if: 1) your toilet bowl has a ring, or 2) you have dirty dishes in the sink, or 3) you have clean dishes in the drainer tray which haven't been put away, or 4) your grass hasn't been mowed. I am not making this up.

Nanny State is not only in California, it's anywhere a person or an agency has too much power and no common sense oversight.

And I do hope that Georgia's Governor Perdue is NOT on McCain's short list.

[Bender2]

This fall right in line with my energy plan... to imprison all those without the correct air pressure in their tires.

[mathurine]

You would have to wonder who would accept a job as a trash inspector in San Francisco? Getting into the refuse of a depraved place like that would be asking for a plague: any plague; every plague.

[al baby]

Yet illegals have sanctuary

[Elle Bee]

It's been proposed here in Key West as well ... figures

.

[Elle Bee]

Mandatory recycling coming

BY MANDY BOLEN

Key West Citizen Staff

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

One of these will no longer be optional in Key West, where officials are drafting a law that makes residential recycling mandatory within the city.

Public Works Director R.B. Havens said Monday the proposal is still in draft form, and thus not a public record. But he said the city will hold a public forum about the program before the proposal goes before the Key West City Commission for discussion and vote.

Current recycling levels in Key West are at a dismal 7.4 percent.

That all could change in the coming months with the implementation of mandatory recycling.

In the draft proposal, garbage collectors would be instructed not to pick up any garbage bag or other container that is found to contain recyclable material. Or, if a collector hears bottles rattling inside a garbage bag, he would tag the bag and leave it on the curb, Havens said.

If the violation was not remedied by the next trash collection day, the matter could be turned over to the city's Code Compliance office for possible fines and penalties.

Havens said his department wants public input on the fines and penalty section of the ordinance.

He also supports issuing each household a much larger recycle bin that would allow residents to place all recyclables in one bin without separating them.

Such a program would make participation much easier for residents, he said.

Annalise Mannix, director of Environmental Programs, pointed out in an e-mail to Havens that residents could simply buy themselves a larger bin for $8 and use it for recyclables, while reserving the provided 14-gallon bin for paper recycling.

Providing the larger, but more convenient bins would cost money during a tight budget year, so the details of the program remain to be seen.

Havens also will tackle the questions expected to arise from multi-family apartment buildings, as garbage collectors would have no way to determine who within a complex is not recycling.

"There's a lot to work out, and the proposal likely will not be ready for public discussion until the middle or end of August," he said.

Published on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Key West Citizen & Bait Wrapper