City says it’s just looking, not touching residents’ garbage

The City of Seattle says it’s not scouring through your trash.

The city responded Monday to a lawsuit filed last week.

The city’s policy to check residents’ garbage and see if they’re complying with a new compost law is “un-american,” Greg Moon previously said.

“I don’t want the city digging through, you know, my garbage,” Moon said.

Moon is one of eight plaintiffs suing the city. He and his attorney say the city needs a warrant to search through residents’ trash.

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The new Seattle law requires residents to put food waste such as egg shells and banana peels in the compost bin and not in the regular garbage.

How do trash crews know who’s doing what? They look at the trash.

Now Seattle officials say that’s all they do: look.

And they point to training guidelines that spell it out. Crews can peer into the trash bin and, if they see a lot of food scraps, cite the resident. Or they can glance at clear garbage bags and if a whole lot of food scraps are visible through the plastic bag, then hand out a citation.

But if it’s an opaque garbage bag and they can’t see the trash inside, the policy says workers need to move on.

The Seattle City Attorney’s office released a statement responding to the lawsuit. It says city collectors aren’t breaking the law.

Seattle Public Utilities isn’t handing out fines yet, just citations. The fines don’t start until 2016.