Thursday, April 9, 2015

Paging George Orwell

February 19, 2015

In an effort to cut down on food waste in landfills, Seattle is paying a waste contractor to go through people's garbage to see how much food waste and recycling they are putting in the trash. If more than 10%  of the garbage is either of those, people who don't recycle or compost (or pay a composting service to haul away the compost) will be fined $1 on their bi-monthly bills.

The city makes a valid point: It costs a bundle to transport the waste, and if food waste sits in the open, it rots and produces methane gas, which is considered to be a harmful greenhouse gas.

Also, the city has tried to be nice and educate and encourage people to do the right thing, with limited results. So now they're stepping up the effort.

Obviously the $1 every two months isn't going to break anybody.

But the government is paying somebody to go through people's garbage.

And it creeps me out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

On the other hand, I'll bet sales of shredders are soaring!