Newsom Goes Dumpster Diving

[rmsharpe]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/01/MN47122A98.DTL

Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped.

The plan to require proper sorting of refuse would be the nation's first mandatory recycling and composting law. It would direct garbage collectors to inspect the trash to make sure it is put into the right blue, black or green bin, according to a draft of the legislation prepared by the city's Department of the Environment.

What will he find? Boogers or Nazi gold?

[David Floyd]

I think I used psycho-liberal to describe the municipal government of San Francisco in another thread. They are just out to prove the title, aren't they?

[snoopy369]

Umm, yeah ... right ...

I am so not moving to SF, ever.

[Zkribbler]

(a) putting re-cycleables into the trash, fills up landfills, costing the city money.

(b) putting trash in the recycle bins fouls the recycling process, costing the city money.

Why do you folks want to squander public funds?

[David Floyd]

Levying silly fines on people for not supporting recycling efforts whose net value is often less than the effort put into it is also a way of costing the city money. If people have less money to spend, and/or get fed up and move out entirely, the city is still losing money.

[Zkribbler]

Are you sure?

Landfills, however, are the final resting place for most bottles. Ostensibly this is the cheaper option. But landfill tipping fees, the dumping tariffs levied to offset the cost of creating, maintaining and closing a landfill, can be quite expensive compared to recycling. This is especially true in densely populated areas like the East Coast or areas like Florida with shallow water tables. In fact, fees can run from $10 a ton to over $100, according to Jerry Powell, editor of the trade publication “Plastics Recycling Update.” Additionally, dumping wastes a valuable commodity: In 2005, about half a billion dollars worth of PET bottles went to landfills, according to the Container Recycling Institute, a non-profit organization.

[lightblue]

How hard is it to recycle? We have had 3 bins for years, one for garden waste, one for recyclables (glass, paper, plastic bottles, cans etc) and for landfill waste. We also have a composter in the garden.

The place I live (Peterborough, UK) is aiming for a 65% recycle rate. Back where my parents live (Luxembourg) it is well over that. You get used to it.

[dannubis]

Because environment is something that most americans see on TV...

[EPW]

I can't imagine that the garbage collectors are happy about this.(unless they keep the fine money)

[rah]

We've had triple sorting in our area for over a decade.
When the city provides large and convienent recycle bins, compliance is quite high.

[Seeker]

Korea has extensive laws and regs about separation and recycling of trash.

It results in trash covering the streets as people just litter instead of buying the expensive designated bags and spending time separating.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
(a) putting re-cycleables into the trash, fills up landfills, costing the city money.

(b) putting trash in the recycle bins fouls the recycling process, costing the city money.

Why do you folks want to squander public funds?

If I wanted to live in North Korea, I'd just take a flight over there ...

[Dinner]

I can see their point how it costs money to sort nonrecyclables which are put in the recycle container. Still this is dumb just like San Diego's mayor was being a dumb ass when he threatened to fine people for not recycling enough. The big problem was the state raised the amount of money people could get for recycling glass or cans so lots of people started taking the recycling down themselves rather then just giving it to the city nothing. The mayor got mad that the city's recycling program wasn't making as much as he'd hoped and threatened to fine people who were doing the recycling themselves. He backed off when the ACLU threatened to sue.

BTW I live in a Republican controlled city so it isn't just liberals. It's a government problem but not a very big one.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by David Floyd
Levying silly fines on people for not supporting recycling efforts whose net value is often less than the effort put into it is also a way of costing the city money. If people have less money to spend, and/or get fed up and move out entirely, the city is still losing money.

HA! That's what you think. Recycling is big money if you live in a state with a large deposit on recyclables (which I do). The deposit is so large people mostly do their own recycling and then the city gets pissed off because they wanted people to give them the deposit for free.

[rah]

Originally posted by Seeker
Korea has extensive laws and regs about separation and recycling of trash.

It results in trash covering the streets as people just litter instead of buying the expensive designated bags and spending time separating.

Yeah, Chicago tried the expensive designated bags thing and it failed miserably.

Our city GAVE everyone one of those 60 gallon or so bins on wheels that they have their trucks designed to unload easily. I didn't see hard numbers but the chat was that in doubled the amount of recylables that were collected. It wasn't even expensive for the city since companies that bid for the pick up contract were required to provide them as part of the bid. YAAA free market.