Digested From "S.F. Mayor Proposes Fines for Unsorted Trash"
San Francisco Chronicle by John Cote
Under a proposal by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, garbage collectors would inspect city residents' trash to make sure discarded food is not mixed in with wine bottles or newspapers. If businesses or residents do not separate the coffee grounds from the recyclables, they would face fines of as much as $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service halted. Local apartment community owners are concerned that they will have to pay for a resident's behavior and will not be able to pass the fine along. Sean Pritchard, government affairs director for the San Francisco Apartment Association, asks, "How do you determine which tenant is at fault? Or do we indiscriminately start fining all tenants for one tenant's poor choice of judgment?" Environment Department Director Jared Blumenfeld shrugged off such fears. He replies, "We won't enforce against owners of apartment buildings if their tenants don't do this." If passed, this would be the country's first mandatory recycling and composting law. The duty of inspecting the trash would fall on garbage collectors to make sure the right blue, black and green bins are being used properly, according to a draft of the legislation prepared by the city's Department of the Environment. The program's main goal is to limit the amount of food and foliage that goes into the city-contracted landfill in Alameda County. While plenty of U.S. cities have imposed mandatory recycling, none require all food waste to be composted.
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