Seattle to require mandatory table-scrap recycling for all single-family homes

[Pred]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ycling16m.html

City to require table-scrap recycling at homes in 2009
By Sharon Pian Chan
Seattle Times staff reporter
All single-family homes in Seattle must sign up for table-scrap recycling in 2009, the City Council decided Monday.
While residents will have to pay for the service, the city will not check whether they are actually dumping food in the new separate bin.
Reducing food trash was a piece of a larger plan the council unanimously approved Monday to reduce the amount of garbage sent to the landfill.
"We can reduce the waste stream," said Councilmember Richard Conlin, chair of the utilities committee. "We can treat waste as a resource and continue to recirculate it as we reclaim, recycle it or turn it into compost."
Starting in April 2009, all single-family homes will be required to subscribe to food-waste recycling, a program that is now optional through the yard-waste collection program. A variety of containers will be available for different rates. Prices have not been set.
Recycling food waste will be voluntary for apartments, as well as for businesses, which produce twice as much food waste as residents.
Conlin said he hopes garbage-collection rates can be adjusted to absorb some of the additional cost homeowners will have to pay for food recycling.
Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) will study a ban on putting food waste in the garbage can — and enforcing the ban as it does with aluminum, paper and glass. If businesses, apartments and houses place recyclable material in their trash, violators are fined or their garbage doesn't get picked up.
By 2025, the council hopes, the city will divert 72 percent of its garbage from the landfill.
Seattle recycles 44 percent of its trash now. In 2003, Mayor Greg Nickels hoped to reach 60 percent by 2010, but that goal has been pushed back to 2012.
The council resolution adopted Monday dropped a controversial plan to build a new garbage facility in Georgetown where trash would be transferred from trucks to trains. Neighbors there protested, saying it would increase truck traffic on their streets.
Two existing facilities in Wallingford and South Park will be rebuilt and expanded.
In another effort to reduce landfill waste, the council wants to raise self-haul rates at the transfer station in 2008, and eventually eliminate the do-it-yourself trips to the transfer stations.
The council declined to ban Styrofoam and plastic garbage bags. For now, SPU will study a ban and plastic-bag tax and report back to the council by the end of this year.

This reminds me of something my town did a while back. They tacked on a $6.00 a month garbage pick up fee to the water bill. However, it doesn't matter if you take your trash to the dump or not, you still have to pay it.

[ArkansasHunter]

I'm glad I don't live there !

[BloodRedStratus]

This is why I have a dog! LOL

[Midas]

Oh brother

[just_a_car]

Man, am I glad we moved just north of Seattle! That place is breeding grounds for the Jane Fondas of the world.

[CrazyIvan]

So, why don't they just say:

"Following every meal, homeowners will hold a 'free food' line on their front porch for all homeless persons, where they will provide any leftovers for free to these individuals."

[Lng Rng]

This is the same city where the bars have a 3 beer limit.

[Big Dog]

"Food Waste" . . . ? All I leave are clean bones.

No way would I pay for something I didn't use.

[lifesgood]

You know I keep seeing a pattern in many of these bills & laws. They are directed towards homeowners. The cost to own a house is getting crazy. The mortgage is one thing then you have these different places directing more cost to homeowners, Who wants to own a place. I see why more and more older people are doing as we have for years, living in an RV. You pay a monthly rent that is it. A person would be better off buying a store front and move in. It's like the guy that posted here about having rights on his property. The bottom line is NO YOU DON"T HAVE ANY RIGHTS as a HOMEOWNER. The American dream is only a distant memory.

[Pred]

Right now my wife and I live in an apartment. And until we have a kid, I see no point in moving. No taxes to pay, don't have to worry about upkeep or if something breaks, or leaks. No yard to mow, no bushes to trim(they do it). While some people say all I'm doing is throwing money away... maybe. I'm also not pulling my hair out when something happens.

[lifesgood]

Originally Posted by Pred

Right now my wife and I live in an apartment. And until we have a kid, I see no point in moving. No taxes to pay, don't have to worry about upkeep or if something breaks, or leaks. No yard to mow, no bushes to trim(they do it). While some people say all I'm doing is throwing money away... maybe. I'm also not pulling my hair out when something happens.

AMEN to that. You know people buy houses for X amount of money then they sell them for a profit of X amount, or so they think. But they seldom add the cost to live there. TAXES, UTILITIES, ALL THESE PETTY TAXES, WATER, SEWER, ELECTRIC, & ON & ON. I know that you and I pay a 1/3 or less of that Electric bill. The lawn mowers, and the $1000 of dollars of equipment to keep the place up. The list keeps going on forever. I have owned houses. The whole thing is crazy. I understand if you have a family but that costs a small fortune in itself. Then in my case did I want to bring kids into this type of world. My answer was NO. But I'm glad many didn't follow me. I love kids, my wife & I both work with kids, she is a teacher & I coach. But what is nice is when school is out we go home without them.

[SPOCAHP ANAR]

I think recycling is a good idea, but why does it always cost more to conserve?

New Bern NC came up with this crap back in the 90's. They passed a mandatory recycling program and sent every resident 15$ a month bill. Which was to pay for Waste Industries to pick up the trash. Then at the end of the month Waste Industries gave the county a kick back for the money they made of recycling the waste. If they could make a profit on it then it should have been self sufficient and paid for itself.

Sounds like someone got a kickback to me.

[Brother Bob]

People on the left coast never cease to amaze me with their intellectual prowess ............. Yeah right!

[just_a_car]

Originally Posted by Lng Rng

This is the same city where the bars have a 3 beer limit.

Try again. No such thing... or at least, if there is, it's not enforced... at all.

[Rufus Rhastus J]

I'm glad I'm not the poor garbage guy...you can bet he won't see a dime for his extra work.

[Rave]

Like al these hare-brained schemes,it's just another tax in desguise.

[Deersniper]

It is getting harder and harder to be a homeowner or a fly. I bet Al Gore came up with this. And just one sheet of toilet paper...

[Big Dog]

At the very least, limit this nonsense to the businesses that produce it - restaurants and fast food joints! These goons are hitting the entirely wrong people with their BS Tax.

[ezearln]

I can just see the number of obese dogs throughout seattle as they are fed ever increasing portions of table scaraps in order to reduce landfill tonnage. Big Dog makes a very valid point restuerants and especially fast food joints are notorious for food waste , it's the nature of the business.