Posted on 08/11/2008 10:41:18 AM PDT by PROCON
We don't need government to regulate everything. San Francisco - Ever-perceived by the rest of the nation as perched on the fringe of rationality, San Francisco is about to flip its lid once again. The lid's color, if it's any comfort, is green as in one of the three recycling bins into which its residents will be forced to sort their food waste.
The consequences for the unwilling, if the mayor has his way? Fines up to $1,000 from the garbage police.
I kid you not. Mayor Gavin Newsom is taking the leap from voluntary environmental engagement to an enforced one. You will recycle, or you'll be outed, says the legislation drafted by the city's Department of the Environment.
Other cities have mandatory recycling. San Francisco is upping the ante, creating the first composting law, directing where you'll dish your table scraps.
Currently, 70 percent of waste escapes the landfill. To meet a goal of recycling 75 percent by 2010, the mayor is about to displace voluntary compliance with mandatory enforcement.
If your coffee grounds are found drizzling through your black bin, not your green, well then, you've just found yourself on the wrong side of the law.
History repeatedly reminds us that extreme fervor by government leads to infringement on basic rights. Yet eager, young, and even brilliant leaders experience moments of impaired reason when confronted with an idea that appears a perfect solution for a historical moment.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Actually, primary infraction laws regarding seatbelts are just excuses to use profiling.
I knew a guy who took recycling in some interesting directions. He and his family had a lot of empty aluminum cans and an electric kiln, so he decided to make his own aluminum ingots. After years of making large, rectangular 1” thick ingots, he used them to brick his driveway before covering it with gravel. He figured if the price of aluminum ever jumped, his family would make some money with their secret stash of aluminum.
But before melting the cans, he wanted to grind them up, so got something like a powerful paper shredder strong enough to grind aluminum cans. And this gave him the idea of grinding up the rest of his trash.
Steel cans, paper and unusual plastics he put through one shredder, though he didn’t say what he did with it. I suspect he did it to keep anyone from playing with his trash, which is legal once you put it out on the curb.
PETE and HDPE (#1 and #2) plastics and organic waste, he put through a different shredder, then used as flower garden fertilizer after quick composting. He said it worked great in his hard packed, dry and alkaline soil, the non-toxic plastic both keeping the compost and soil fluffy and catching water.
Hell, they stepped off a long time ago!
Oh, please, everybody in SF is already outed. You'll need some other way to threaten people.
LOL, thanks. We need to start a garbage police PING list. Been cleaning out the old house (I moved in May) and you should see what I put in the recycle cans this weekend.
I already have two. They really are fantastic, and sometimes lots of fun. Try putting the old batteries in a soiled baby diaper and then run the compactor for a few cycles.
Okay, what happens?
“Ever-perceived by the rest of the nation as perched on the fringe of rationality”
When? I don’t remember that?
It makes the "evidence" very difficult to retrieve.
Defense lawyers like them too. Someone can go to get a traffic ticket (say speeding violation...) dismissed and the attorney will seek a “plea bargain” if the prosecutor will drop the seatbelt fine.
The attorney then tells his client that he couldn’t beat the speeding charge but...
Cincinnati is in the midst of a garbage strike. Johnny facetiously tells his listeners to dump their garbage on the steps of City Hall. When the station receives a complaint that people are actually doing it, Johnny develops "mike fright" (fear of speaking into the microphone) and is unable to go on the air.< /wikipedia excerpt >Mr. Carlson calls in his attorney, Elgar Neese (played by diminutive actor Christian Seaborn), to discuss the station's liability resulting from Johnny's actions.
Later, Venus talks to Johnny at Snooky's Bar, followed shortly by Andy. Johnny agrees to go back to the station and, with Bailey's encouragement, he goes on the air and tells the listeners to stop dumping their garbage at City Hall; once he gets his confidence back, he suggests they dump it at the mayor's house instead.
Jerry Springer(D) was the mayor of Cincinnati at the time.
"Buckle up for safety, buckle up!"?
Now, it's replaced by the gravel-voiced Big Brother face-stomping boot-voice:
"CLIKITERTIKET, YOU VILE LAWBREAKING PEASANT! "
“To meet a goal of recycling 75 percent by 2010, the mayor is about to displace voluntary compliance with mandatory enforcement.”
possible ping
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. — H. L. Mencken
This actually happened to us when we were living in a Condo Association/Commune before we bought a private residence.
We actually had some busybody woman going through the trash and determining who was recycling and who wasn’t and then tacking a nasty note on the door while we were at work.
I know you usually restrict your nanny-state pings to eating and smoking issues, but doesn’t this garbage micro-management BS count as well?
Cops searching through trash is absolutely horrid...unless they find a few pot seeds. Then they should be free to do a no knock warrant search on your house guns a blazin!
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.