New food waste law (Fortuna, August: apartment complex, condos, houses)

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Ok, I can see certain businesses or public agencies like a prison having a lot of food waste but homes? How does this affect those that live in apartments.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ing-program-us

I don't know about you but I'm not in the habit of wasting food.

[evening sun]

My concern is wildlife, the racoons will love to get their paws into wasted food or food scraps, we don't waste food, we eat what we buy, but of course there will be peelings, we eat a lot of fresh veg, & meat bones etc. I believe our county is not yet implementing the law, as we are waiting for a biomass facility to be built.

[Hemlock140]

This has been a law in Seattle for several years, and in fact, residents can be fined if there are food scraps found in their regular garbage. Here in our city east of Seattle we are able to put food scraps in the yard waste bin, but we don't. It's nasty when the food scraps rot and get moldy in the bin since they only pick up once a week. In addition, we have a lot of wildlife including raccoons and bears that would love to open the bin and dig in. Fortunately it's not enforced here, we use the garbage disposal in the sink mostly, except for hard items like bones, and clogging items such as potato peels.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

This has been a law in Seattle for several years, and in fact, residents can be fined if there are food scraps found in their regular garbage. Here in our city east of Seattle we are able to put food scraps in the yard waste bin, but we don't. It's nasty when the food scraps rot and get moldy in the bin since they only pick up once a week. In addition, we have a lot of wildlife including raccoons and bears that would love to open the bin and dig in. Fortunately it's not enforced here, we use the garbage disposal in the sink mostly, except for hard items like bones, and clogging items such as potato peels.

Do they have a "Garbage Police"? I just can't see how they can enforce it anywhere. We have chickens so any scraps go straight into the run. Most older houses with a garbage disposal are just begging for routine roto rooters coming out to clear the drain.

If we are forced to get a bin it will just take up space on the side of the house. It will look brand new in a year. I'll be using it as a rain barrel.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Do they have a "Garbage Police"? I just can't see how they can enforce it anywhere. We have chickens so any scraps go straight into the run. Most older houses with a garbage disposal are just begging for routine roto routers coming out to clear the drain.

If you are forced to get a bin it will just take up space on the side of the house. It will look brand new in a year.

Believe it or not, some municipalities do have garbage police. Takoma Park, MD was once such. Inspectors would go around on garbage day and red tag any bags that had recyclables in them. Just one cat food can would disqualify the entire bag.

[evening sun]

Another thing I am not happy about, is the stink it will bring. Our summer is hot, often triple digit. Chicken bones & potato peels do not age well in that heat.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Believe it or not, some municipalities do have garbage police. Takoma Park, MD was once such. Inspectors would go around on garbage day and red tag any bags that had recyclables in them. Just one cat food can would disqualify the entire bag.

Yes, in Seattle the collectors are the "police". If they seen anything like coffee grounds, orange peels or bones in the trash when they pick it up, a bright red tag is posted on the garbage bin, telling everyone who sees it that you've violated the city law making it illegal to put food into trash cans. Then they note it and report back to the office, for the fines to be added to the next bill. Households only pay $1 per violation, but apartments, condos and commercial buildings could be fined $50. If I lived there, I would just pay the fine every week, it's well worth $4 a month to just leave it in the trash.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

Yes, in Seattle the collectors are the "police". If they seen anything like coffee grounds, orange peels or bones in the trash when they pick it up, a bright red tag is posted on the garbage bin, telling everyone who sees it that you've violated the city law making it illegal to put food into trash cans. Then they note it and report back to the office, for the fines to be added to the next bill. Households only pay $1 per violation, but apartments, condos and commercial buildings could be fined $50. If I lived there, I would just pay the fine every week, it's well worth $4 a month to just leave it in the trash.

Especially an apartment complex where anything in it would be untraceable to who did the "crime".

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by evening sun

Another thing I am not happy about, is the stink it will bring. Our summer is hot, often triple digit. Chicken bones & potato peels do not age well in that heat.

Now that they made it illegal to fillet fish before you get home there is going to be some really unhappy neighbors around here. Dead tuna carcasses are horrid.

[FrankNSense]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Ok, I can see certain businesses or public agencies like a prison having a lot of food waste but homes? How does this affect those that live in apartments.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ing-program-us

I don't know about you but I'm not in the habit of wasting food.

Our trash service distributed "Green Waste" containers back in August. Right now it is just one more thing I have to store. They are used sporadically in our neighborhood, on any given trash pick-up day I perhaps see 10% of the houses using them. I've used it a couple of times when I have had big "green" waste to get rid of. I don't make it a habit of wasting food, and overall not going to stress over forgetting to put an occasional piece of bread or fruit that went bad in the wrong container.

As far as I can tell the "law" doesn't apply to residents directly, but puts the effort on the cities and municipalities that provide trash service. That is they aren't going to come around and search through my trash. It also seems to require stores to donate food that isn't saleable to food banks which seems like a decent idea.