San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted today to require all businesses and residences to recycle and compost their garbage or face fines, which could lead to a lien on their property.
The ordinance, approved in a 9-2 vote, will force building owners to sign up for the city’s existing composting and recycling programs. The Board will deliver a final vote on the ordinance next week.
“Many tenants want to recycle and compost but the building does not offer the service,” Mayor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “We’re going to change that.”
The city could enforce the ordinance with citations and penalties that “could not exceed $1,000, although the Directors could by regulation cap penalties at lower levels,” it said. The ordinance specifically pegs fines for buildings generating less than a cubic yard of trash per week, such as single-family homes, at less than $100.
Other cities, notably Seattle and San Diego, have mandatory recycling laws in place but fines are rarely leveled. Unpaid fines in San Francisco could lead to lien proceedings.
San Francisco generates some 2 million tons of solid waste annually, according to the city, but it also enjoys the highest waste diversion rate in the country — 70 percent. By 2020, the city wants to send no waste to landfill.
Where I live in Canada you have one semi large blue bin
you put recycled stuff in 8$ a month
the city give’s you a refund for a tiny compost you put in your back yard I think its 20 or 30$ total.
Hey, a fine for not recycling might be alright, but a LIEN?! They’re going to take your property away if you don’t recycle? How is that fair?
Um, getsmart, you completely failed to get the point of Idiocracy.
Yes, it did feature giant mountains of trash.
#11
And what do piles of garbage attract – freeloading riff raff.
Not democrats for this example, but cute little chipmunks and squirrels and cute by not so pleasant skunks and not so cute nor pleasant coyotes and dog packs.
With a never ending “food source”, there will be all sorts of riff raff belling up to get the free meal they will soon come to believe they are entitled to…followed shortly by PETA protecting the ‘rights’ of those little rats.
I liked her other shirt: Will fuck for Jesus!
I bet the same people who whine about personal freedom when told to recycle and reduce waste are the same people who defend a granny tazing cop because the granny exercised personal freedom (ok the granny was an asshole but you get my drift).
Deal with your own waste. Don’t make it someone else’s problem. Citing personal freedom to avoid personal responsibility is a cop out.
In my suburb in Oz we have a fairly sensible recycling program which just requires keeping plastic, metal and paper separate, and the local council provides a big wheely bin to dump it all in. There is also a wheely bin for garden waste if you need it.
San Francisco: The Stench by the Bay
Why doesn’t someone tie a plastic shopping bag over the philandering mayor’s head until he’s “GREEN” and then compost his remains?
It would decrease SF’s carbon dioxide.
Just to add to Hugh’s comment, I believe those complaining about “personal freedoms” are the same that complain about saddling our children with debt. Hey, guess what. All that garbage your “personal freedom” makes is being left to OUR children. Grow up and start thinking past your own greedy assholes for once.
#26
Personal Freedom….simple rules that apply to everyone – equally. No one gets a free ride because of their age and no one has to carry a heavier burden because a nutcase wants to be seen as politically correct.
Nothing complicated or hard to understand – unless your trying to see thru the glasses Mr.Fusion is wearing. And then life gets so confusing all you can do is bully and threaten people who disagree.
#28, Rick,
You fail to see that your “personal freedom” stops at our right to live free from your garbage.
Tell you what: If you want to enforce these recycling rules because it makes you feel good to force ME to follow them, then we should go all the way and enforce ALL these freedom limiting rules. A) Put a 1000% tax on alcohol, because we should reduce the number of drunks and then the number of deaths due to drunk driving. Make it too expensive to be a drunk.
2) You cannot have anything but fluroescent lamps in your home. Sorry if you hate that light, sorry if it doesn’t jive with your aesthetic taste. (And trust me, I’ve been in tons of homes in San Francisco where the PC nuts living in them refuse to use fluroscents because ‘I can’t stand them…’
C) No more cars. Cars are not green. Cars must be outlawed in San Francisco. No parking in San Francisco, no driving in San Francisco. Want to own a car? Then park it outside the city and take Muni or the bus to your car when you need it.
D) No bakeries. Bakeries produce things loaded with sugar (which non of us need) and carbs (which make us fat and we can’t have that). So bakeries are gone.
E) No coffee. It’s filled with aromatics and carinogens. Protect people from themselves if they won’t do it for themselves.
#31, Kwad,
Do you have issues because people don’t want to live with your garbage? You do sound like the type of asshole that gleefully throw refuse out the window of you SUV not caring whose lawn it lands on.
Isn’t it funny what a mean, uneducated, illiterate, foulmouthed, arrogant asshole anyone becomes who doesn’t bend over and follow the latest and newest whim of the left/liberals.
Kind of funny – I never seen any right-wing nuts on major networks, night after night, week after week, publicly chastising or badmouthing the few people who …. say, for one of many examples….. don’t want to own a firearm. Those mean, nasty right wing nuts, how dare they let ya all live in peace – that’s being so very mean.
What a shame that the ‘party of everyone’ can’t be at peace with those who disagree with them.
#33, Rick,
I never seen any right-wing nuts on major networks, night after night, week after week, publicly chastising or badmouthing the few people
Really? I watched a few minutes of Bill O’Reilly tonight. The restaurant had him on. He was calling Joan Walsh a baby murderer and a few other names. Why? Because she supported the activities of a physician performing a legal operation.
Then he had Glenn Beck on to whine about Paul Klugman and criticize a Nobel Prize winner in Economics for not knowing anything about economics. At that point I asked the manager to please change the channel.
Which is one of the main reasons I don’t watch FOX SPEWS. All they know how to do is cry.
A couple of nights ago I caught a few minutes of Hannity while flipping around. He had Ann Coulter on to comment on the Letterman / Palin spat. She had nothing nice to say about the whole thing. You do remember Coulter, the one who said those who lost loved ones on 9/11 didn’t really lose anything? The same harpy who called Al Gore a Fag, said Elizabeth Edwards deserved to have her tit cut off, who told a disabled Viet Nam Vet “People like you caused us to lose the war”, but the best being while at the 2004 Democrat convention describing some females, “corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons.”
Of course, if I were to touch on Boss Limpdick, Micheal Savage, or some wing nut I’ll go for it. All right wing broadcasters are filled with hate.
With prices for recyclables (metals etc) drop all over the world now I’m surprised they push it this year – instead 2-3 years ago…
In other words:
City of SF wants to collect recyclable materials at the moment of their lowest prices in past few years.
I couldn’t find any per-dollar data for SF, but I found this one for Toronto:
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/02/04/8255421-sun.html
“Now tonnes of blue bin items have dropped by hundreds of dollars. Aluminum cans dropped from a summer high of $2,209 a tonne to $1,089 last month. Margarine tubs dropped from a September high of $295 a tonne to a stunning $6 a tonne last month.”
You bet same/sim. prices are in SF area.
Property taxes in SF are about to jump 15-20%, wanna bet?
I think I just proved my point.
#36, Rick,
Only a right wing nut can be lose so badly and still claim they won the fight. Which partly explains why they are such losers.
cause I was sharing ideas….not fighting.
As I said in #36, it’s apparent the only information you’ve shared is that it appears you (and others)are bitter, foul mouthed and scared of anyone who thinks differently than you. Granted, while this may not be true, it’s the appearance that’s presented.