DC Resident Fined $2000 For Not Recycling Cat Litter

Townhall.com ^ | February 24, 2012 | Helen Whalen Cohen

[Kaslin]

D.C. resident Patricia White has received 8 fines, totaling $2000 for not recycling old newspapers which she uses as cat litter. Ms. White told Fox News DC that she wanted to help the environment by shredding old newspapers and junk mail instead of buying cat litter from stores. Unfortunately for her, it is illegal to not recycle in DC, and she has incurred the Department of Public Works' wrath.

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.

So this is what it has come to in DC. Perhaps someone from the Department of Public Works should read Professor Don Boudreaux's 'I Recycle', and keep in mind how resourceful Ms. White's actions really are (and maybe reevaluate the wisdom of rooting through peoples trash to make sure they are cleaning according to their standards):

Consider a typical day.

 

After I awaken, I shower and dry myself with a towel that I’ve had for a few years. I use this towel day after day. I don’t discard it after one use. When it gets dirty, I toss it in the washing machine to clean it for further use. I recycle my towel.

 

Then I brew coffee and fix breakfast. Each day I use the same coffeemaker that I used the day before. I clean it after each use, recycling it for the next time. My wife and I drink the coffee from mugs that have been used many times in the past. (Actually, one set of our coffee mugs was handed down to us after my wife’s parents used them for several years.) We also eat our breakfasts using dishes and utensils that are recycled from countless past uses. After breakfast, we don’t throw our mugs, dishes, and utensils away; instead we put them in the dishwasher to be recycled for yet another use.

 

After breakfast, I dress myself in clothes that I’ve worn before and that I will wear again. My underwear, my pants, my shirt, my necktie, my belt, my coat, my shoes, my wristwatch, all are recycled from previous uses. And when I remove these clothes at day’s end, I’ll recycle them again, with the help of our automatic washer and dryer.

 

When my wife and I drive to work, we drive automobiles that we used the day before and that we’ll drive for the next few years. We don’t junk them after a single use. Instead, we recycle them, day in and day out.

 

The pots and pans that we use to prepare our meals, our toaster, our refrigerator, our television, our compact discs, our furniture, and, indeed, our house itself are all routinely recycled, use after use after use.

 

My family and I recycle a lot! And we’re not alone. Everyone recycles a lot.

Ms. White says that she will continue to fight the fines and keep throwing away her cat litter in the trash.

[Above My Pay Grade]

Actually, that would improve the smell of both houses.

[WayneS]

ok throw the homemade kitty litter into the newspaper bin

That is exactly what I would do with it.

[Joe the Pimpernel]

This is why the statists don’t want you to be able to contract for your own trash pickup; it gives them no power to micromanage your behavior to their liking.

[Girlene]

Green Police

[MeganC]

In a more free country like, say...Libya, Tunisia, or Egypt these oppressive bureaucrats would be put up against a wall and shot.

[Astronaut]

The Statists want to control what you do with your garbage. I live in a town (Bellingham WA) run by liberal morons, but they haven’t made it illegal to refuse to recycle. Yet. But when they do, I will keep doing what I do now: everything goes out it the trash. If they want to dig through my trash, they will find some unpleasant surprises waiting! I refuse to allow the liberal thugs to control me.

[onedoug]

“The bigger the government the smaller the citizen.”

[Texas Fossil]

This is not about what is logical or reasonable.

This is about "subjection", the nanny state cannot possibly tolerate any shred of "resistance" or "defiance".

---

"Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God"

Reverse side of the First Committee U.S. seal proposal.

The first committee consisted of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams.

Franklin chose an allegorical scene from Exodus, described in his notes as "Moses standing on the Shore, and extending his Hand over the Sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh who is sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his Head and a Sword in his Hand. Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Clouds reaching to Moses, to express that he acts by Command of the Deity." Motto, "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God."

"Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God"

Reverse side of the First Committee U.S. seal proposal.

The first committee consisted of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams.

Franklin chose an allegorical scene from Exodus, described in his notes as "Moses standing on the Shore, and extending his Hand over the Sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh who is sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his Head and a Sword in his Hand. Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Clouds reaching to Moses, to express that he acts by Command of the Deity." Motto, "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God."

[1_Rain_Drop]

She knows nothing about recycling. She’s doing it half way.

This young lady CAN recycle the cat littered newspapers even further. She could probably rinse off the newspapers with the water she uses to wash her dishes or do her laundry. Then she can start a worm farm. Those worms love shredded newspapers and as a reward they provide the owner with lovely soil for her potted plants.

She can take the used shredded newspapers, boil it and then make starter pots for seedlings. Use the soil the worms created from the previously used newspaper.

She can take the used shredded newspaper, dump it on a layer of newspapers, roll it and tie it with a string. She can place this ‘log’ in the newspaper recycle bin. Poop and all.

Heck. She could just flush the used newspapers down the toilet. Carefully.

She’s not smart enough to recycle 100%.
She’s better off paying the $2K fine.

[PeteB570]

Our county garbage guys are pissy about yard waste.

They don’t like the fact I just rake my back yard and put everything in the bin for pickup. I have three dogs and the garbage men don’t like the poo in with the leaves and pin straw.

Man, it all goes to a giant compost pile. I would think the dog poo would help the composting.

[HIDEK6]

I am astounded at the clever detective work and untold law enforcement assets that were used in the apprehension of this dangerous criminal.

No wonder DC is so safe.

[Varsity Flight]

Conditioning. Small potatoes compared to the planned coming 2014 BONDAGE of Arbeitsziehungslager.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

“Ms. White says that she will continue to fight the fines and keep throwing away her cat litter in the trash.”

She needs to pour a mixture of ammonia and Clorox together into the kitty litter as she throws it out. As the fat nose inspector opens that package, he will be overtaken by the poisonous fumes and no doubt pass out.

.

[Joe 6-pack]

"...she wanted to help the environment by shredding old newspapers and junk mail instead of buying cat litter from stores. Unfortunately for her, it is illegal to not recycle in DC, and she has incurred the Department of Public Works' wrath."

And yet, it has probably still not dawned upon her that this is not at all about the environment, but about control.

[pops88]

“Let’s see; I pay you $$ to haul my garbage, then I pay you more $$ for you to pick up the same garbage that I hand-sorted.”

It’s them getting us to do their job for them. Of course the woman was fined- she was taking away a money making source from the recycling company. We’re such fools. They get us to sort all this stuff out for them so they can make money off it and we pay them to do it.

[lentulusgracchus]

But then, the essence of being a modern liberal is the ability to simultaneously hold fast to two contradictory concepts.

Nah, it's the disinclination to hold fast to anything, except for abstract Marxist stuff they make up.

[lentulusgracchus]

It’s them getting us to do their job for them.

Sure. They got us to give them an open-ended power to assign people work. With that in hand, there is no end to the amount and kinds of work that they will find for you.

The mistake was giving them the call in the first place. People have to do their own thinking, or these guys will run the table on them.

[lentulusgracchus]

Proof positive that D.C. has the biggest collection of officials who are "dumber than a box of rocks."

If they're so dumb, why is she fighting the fines, while they kick back and smoke a cigar she paid for?

[hinckley buzzard]

Since she seems to be in the spirit of recycling she should start a compost heap and use the newspaper/litter there.

[Publius6961]

D.C. resident Patricia White has received 8 fines, totaling $2000 for not recycling old newspapers which she uses as cat litter.

Eight times?

Stupid question.
Why doesn't she simply put her used kitty litter in the recycle bin?
Problem solved.