LOLOL what whackos.
Seattle to recycle its leftover food
By Jennifer Harper
July 18, 2007
Old Chinese takeout, moldy fruit, stuff the dog won't even touch: That's garbage gold, at least in Seattle.
The city council there has approved a measure to require all single-family homes to recycle their table scraps. The locals will have a brand-new recycling container to add to their curbside collection of glass, paper and aluminum receptacles.
Now they will have a dedicated vegetable, meat and dairy bin.
"Seattle is once again on the cutting edge when it comes to actually walking the talk of our environmental values," said council member Richard Conlin, who is chairman of the Environment, Emergency Management and Utilities Committee, which passed the measure on Monday.
Already, food waste has been vilified as contributor to global warming, producing methane in landfills that is "23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide," said Tom Watson, director of nearby King County's Recycling and Environmental Services, who advises consumers to "remember to eat your leftovers."
Sally Clark, another council member, said, "This legislation embodies our city's environmental ethos."
The food-scrap burden, however, is strictly residential. Recycling food waste will be voluntary for apartments, businesses and restaurants, which typically produce twice as much food waste as residents do.
The residents may not be very keen on the idea, though. An unscientific Seattle Times online survey of more than 1,800 people revealed yesterday that 71 percent do not agree with the council's decision, which has been under consideration since June.
Mandatory food-scrap recycling will go into effect in less than two years, adding another facet to the personal trash requirements of Seattle residents, who are also required to recycle 90 percent of their glass, paper, tin, plastic and other domestic detritus — or risk having their garbage collection service discontinued.
It's all the work of "Seattle's garbage police," said Stefan Sharkansky, editor of SoundPolitics.com, a regional political blog.
"The totalitarian nannyists of the Seattle City Clowncil have voted to microregulate residential garbage," he noted yesterday, pointing out that residents will have to pay for the new service, which would be difficult to enforce unless refuse collectors checked every scrap bin.
"If they want to offer me incentives to implement an elaborate garbage processing scheme, that's one thing. But when they impose their messy fetishes on the rest of us, it becomes tempting to bring one's food waste to a council meeting and deliver it in person," Mr. Sharkansky said.
Some communities smell a profit, though.
Council members in Needham, Mass., approved a plan to offer food scrap composting services to nearby Boston, adding an extra $70,000 to the community's coffers. The towns of Raynham and Northampton also plan to offer the service.
The zeal to be green goes further, though. The Alameda County Fair has declared itself to be the first fair in California to be "zero waste" by recycling all that carnival food — from corn dogs to cotton candy — left over from 400,000 visitors. |
