Like most people in Seattle, I am in favor of separating waste and that's shown through Seattle's record of doing this.
I think it's the punitive approach that brought on the lawsuit.
The education for composting included a media blast of video showing city workers poking through garbage and commenting on items and slapping red stickers on violator's bins and noting how neighbors will notice this, encouraging shaming.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/01/26/381586856/tossing-out-food-in-the-trash-in-seattle-you-ll-be-fined-for-that
"I'm sure neighbors are going to see these on their other neighbors' cans," says Rodney Watkins, a lead driver for Recology CleanScapes, a waste contractor for the city. He's on the front lines of enforcing these rules.
Seattle is the first city in the nation to fine homeowners for not properly sorting their garbage. The law took effect on Jan. 1 as a bid to keep food out of landfills. Other cities like San Francisco and Vancouver mandate composting, but don't penalize homeowners directly.
As Watkins made the rounds in Maple Leaf, a residential neighborhood of Seattle, earlier this month, he appeared disheartened to find an entire red velvet cake in someone's trash bin. Any household with more than 10 percent food in its garbage earns a bright red tag notifying it of the infraction.
"Right now, I'm tagging probably every fifth can," Watkins says. "I don't know if that's just the holidays, or the fact that I'm actually paying a lot more attention."
Add to that the fining process. There were flurries of announcements and news stories about the fines about to be implemented, first last July, then in January.
The fines for apartments and condos are both higher and have additions that aren't reported on as much. Our apartment manager had been threatening a rent increase because of this ( on top of regular annual increases here) and this is for a building that regularly has little in the garbage bin and most in the recycling and compost bins. The trash and compost bins are also in the alley, so anyone can toss whatever in them, even if building residents use them properly.
One local blog has a much more detailed description of how this works. Note that the blog is in favor of more recycling and composting and accurately depicts the lawsuit as having been brought by a right wing organization. But the blog also shows the issues with the approach that has been implemented. There are extra fees on top of fines and we all know that those will get passed on to residents, even if those residents make every effort to comply.
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2016/03/capitol-hill-community-post-compostings-a-dirty-job-and-youre-hired/
What frustrates this process is large numbers of new Seattleites, mainly living in apartments and condominiums, are being asked to collate their garbage for the first time in their lives. Overworked and used to living a life of convenience first, centered around delivered food and excessive packaging, the difference between a recycling cart and a garbage dumpster and what to do with them seems to be non-existent. Just a single resident in an apartment or condominium can foul the composting bin for everyone in the complex and no one wants to be responsible for sifting through a disgusting bin of rotting fruits, veggies and meats to decontaminate it. The contractors hired by the city to collect our waste, Recology and Waste Management for most of us, are empowered to search through bags and bins — which prompted a breach of privacy and due process complaint in King County Superior Court by the right wing Pacific Legal Foundation as Bonesteel v. City of Seattle — but are understandably reluctant to do so.
If non-compostable material is visible in a food and yard waste bin, the entire bin is marked as contaminated and won’t be sent to the composting farm. Then the property manager has to call for it to be specially processed as garbage which adds fees to the standard costs and this is where your utility bill or rent increases at a time you’d rather it be going down or at least staying in one place long enough for wages to slowly start catching up.
When a food and yard waste bin is tagged as being ineligible for pickup, the contractor places a check mark on the tag explaining why the cart wasn’t emptied. When someone uses a plastic bag instead of a compostable bag (to the untrained eye, a compostable bag appears indistinguishable from a plastic bag), or discards recyclable or otherwise uncompostable material, someone needs to pick through the mess to remove it. Compostable bags are made from plants, vegetable oils and compostable polymers. They are not the same as “biodegradable” bags and “oxo-degradable” bags, neither of which are acceptable in the food and yard waste carts and are considered contamination. Adding to the confusion, compostable bags are usually dyed green, but not all green bags are compostable; some bags are identified as degradable but aren’t dyed green and may or may not be compostable. Regular plastic bags are never considered compostable, but many residents use them to contain the foul smells of food scraps. Whose job is it to clean up after irresponsible, uneducated, or just plain confused apartment dwellers?
Enter the Friends of Recycling and Composting, or FORC (pronounced “fork”). To further education and stewardship goals, Seattle Public Utilities offers a program offering a one hundred dollar utility bill credit to a property owner or manager in exchange for assigning a steward to monitor the recycling, garbage and composting at a building. If the FORC steward attends a training session, held three to four times a year, the Seattle Public Utilities website promises free compost bins for the multi-family residence they represent. Signing up as a FORC is a simple process of filling out a form, reading some documents, and watching a few videos.
http://www.seattle.gov/util/MyServices/Recycling/BldgOwnersManagers_Recycling/HelpResidentsRecycle/index.htm
The FORC training materials encourage the steward to “monitor” bins and carts and remove contaminating items using a “grabber” when doing so is considered safe in the judgment of the steward (one presumes). When it’s not safe, the cart is fouled, won’t be picked up by the waste management contractor, and will require a special pickup which will incur extra fees and possibly fines. The training materials suggest writing thank you notes to “green heroes” in the building and holding recycling- and compost-themed parties for residents to share tips and enthusiasm. The approach seems to be heavy on carrot for residents (if you can call a waste-reduction-themed party a carrot with a straight face) and sticks for property managers and FORC stewards (being assigned to pick through smelly refuse to avoid paying extra fees feels stick-ish), which seems like it’s keeping true to the spirit of the City of Seattle Zero Waste Resolution’s intent to encourage participation before penalties but this ignores the essential fact of American life: shit oozes downhill so costs and aggravation always get passed on to the consumer.
Add to that yard waste fines and the way these have been imposed.
http://www.kiro7.com/news/seattle-yard-waste-bins-pushed-open-branches-could/43488894
Thompson noticed two $4.90 charges in January for extra yard waste because of those branches.
"To nickel and dime me when we already pay a lot for our yard waste," Thompson said.
It isn't hard to find examples of yard waste bins with the lids not shut.
"I drive down the streets all the time and I see all these people with their lids sticking up, and I think, there's $5, there's $5, there's $5, nobody knows," Thompson said.
When Thompson told us about her extra yard waste charge, KIRO 7 checked the Seattle Public Utilities website and found no mention that customers could be charged if their lids don't close.
After we contacted the city, officials added a warning on the yard waste page.
There has to be a better way of doing this.
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