Throw Away a Banana Peel, Pay a Fine in Seattle

Composting is great, but should
it be mandatory? The Seattle City Council thinks so. Last week all
nine councilmembers decided that those who fail to put their banana
peels in the right bin will pay a fine.  

The penalty is $1 for individual households, whereas apartments
and commercial buildings will receive two warnings and then a $50
fine.

The Seattle Times
explains how dissident trashers will be caught:

Under the new rules, collectors can take a cursory look each
time they dump trash into a garbage truck.

If they see compostable items make up 10 percent or more of the
trash, they’ll enter the violation into a computer system their
trucks already carry, and will leave a ticket on the garbage bin
that says to expect a $1 fine on the next garbage bill.

Apartment buildings and businesses will be subject to the same
10 percent threshold. … Dumpsters there will be checked by
inspectors on a random basis.

Collectors will begin tagging garbage bins and Dumpsters with
educational tickets starting Jan. 1 when they find violations. But
fines won’t start until July 1.

Seattle Public Utility (SPU Director Tim Croll
tells the Times:

SPU hasn’t decided whether it’s going to have an appeals
process. The new law doesn’t set out any such process. SPU wants to
see how people behave before it decides.

SPU will spend about $400,000 on education, outreach and
marketing for the law. But the agency doesn’t expect any additional
enforcement costs.

“So, why is Seattle making residents compost?” asks
CNN. “The city was not going to meet its self-imposed goal of
recycling 60 percent of all waste.”

Although the city requires residents to compost, it
does not foot the bill for the approved composting equipment,
which can range in price from
$80 to $238.