Latest Headlines on OCRegister.com
[x] Close
Orange Punch ~ Opinion blog maintained by editorial writers Alan Bock, Mark Landsbaum and Steven Greenhut
« Previous Post
Next Post »

Greenhouse gas fines coming to a trash can at your curb

June 11th, 2009, 2:51 pm · 4 Comments · posted by Mark Landsbaum

Only in San Francisco (at least for now) could there be a crackdown on improperly sorted trash. All in the name of fighting global warming, of course.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

The Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 Tuesday to approve Mayor Gavin Newsom’s proposal for the most comprehensive mandatory composting and recycling law in the country. It’s an aggressive push to cut greenhouse gas emissions and have the city sending nothing to landfills or incinerators by 2020. 

Isn’t that darling? And you thought all you were doing was putting out the trash when in fact you’re a foot soldier in the war to reduce your own carbon footprint. There’s more, of course:

The ordinance calls for garbage collectors to leave tags on containers when they spot incorrectly sorted material, but those collectors are only going to view what’s on top of the container and have no intention of going through them, said Robert Reed, a spokesman for San Francisco collectors Sunset Scavenger Co. and Golden Gate Disposal & Recycling Co., subsidiaries of Recology, formerly Norcal Waste Systems.

San Francisco officials promise they won’t turn trashmen into garbage police. Right. Anyone want to test them by dropping a banana peel in the recyclable bin or perish the thought, in the trash can?

Oh by the way, fines are up to $500 for businesses, $100 for homeowners. “Initially.” And you think they won’t impose them?

RELATED POSTS:

  • Global warming quote of the day…
  • Curbing global warming: costs vs. benefits
  • Global warming fix, well, maybe not exactly a fix
  • Global warming quote of the day, and then so
  • Gradually global warming myths fall away
    • Share this post:
    • E-mail this story to a friend!
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google
    • Fark
    • NewsVine
    • Slashdot
    • TwitThis
    Posted in: Environment • Global Warming
     
    ADVERTISEMENT

    You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

     4 Comments

    • rlh says:
      June 11, 2009 at 4:00 pm

      Most municipalities throughout bthe country have required at least some minimal sorting of trash, with potential fines for those who don’t do it, for years. In fact, trash sorting dates back to before World War II in many communities, though it was somewhat spottily done through the v50s and 60s especially. But suddenly, because someone appended the evil term, “greenhouse gases” to the practice in a tangential way, it’s an avatar of Mr. Landsbaum’s evil plot theory.

      I also invite readers to check out the article from the Chronicle, to see what it really says, and to note how thoroughly Mr. Landsbaum misstates points from it in his post. Those fines? Moratorium until at least July 2011 to get the system up and running. The amounts? $100 only for “the most egregious offenders,” and that includes all individuals and most small businesses. The $500 fine? Only a maximum fine, for businesses that don’t supply proper sorting bins for their trash. The “looking through the garbage” quote? Torn jaggedly out of context; SF residents were coc=ncerned about people looking for personal information etc in their trash, not where you put a banana peel.

      And the point, and goal, of the program? Utterly ignored - because, well, it doesn’t fit into the writer’s particular sense of outrage. Facts are so much less interesting than manufactured controversy.

      The sheer dishonesty of posts like this is just breathtaking.

      • Mark says:
        June 11, 2009 at 5:06 pm

        I was a supporter of recycling until just recently when it dawned on me that we are foolishly helping keep material costs low for China so that they can make more profits off of us. This is freaking insane.

        I’m thinking Americans should stop recycling so that goods made in China are more competitively priced with American goods. Why should we be picking and sorting our trash to help a country that is no friend of the US, is communist, and has threatened us in various ways in the recent past?

        Screw them and their contaminated “goods.”

        Unless we can get absolute proof that our recycled material won’t be shipped to China, I say ’stop recycling America.’ I have.

    • loufca says:
      June 11, 2009 at 9:36 pm

      Let me share a real story about business in San Francisco.

      I have a friend who is a native San Franciscan. He owns 11 successful delis in the city and employs over 400 people.

      But, he is considering shutting down all of his operations because of the onerus taxes, over riding requirements by the city (he has to pay for travel for all employees plus pay for health insurance no matter how many hours someone works) and now this.

      There is a point where The City will collapse on itself from its’ anti business attitude and egregious requirements. And Gavin Nesome wants to run for Governor! You think Arnold is bad? Newsome make Arnold look like Ghandi.

      At least Arnold didn’t have an affair with his campaign manager’s wife.

    • loufca says:
      June 11, 2009 at 9:37 pm

      San Francisco. Home of Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein and Gavin Newsome. What does that tell you about THE CITY?