Seattle may fine you for throwing compostable materials in trash

The Seattle City Council is considering an ordinance that would fine businesses and residents if they don’t sort out food waste and compostable paper from their trash.

Seattle residents would face a fine of $1 a can for not separating out compostable materials, and condos and businesses would face a $50 fine per pickup for the offense.

This might be a problem for KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson, who says despite his wife’s efforts to teach him, still has no clue what is recyclable, compostable or trash.

“The honest to goodness truth is I cannot figure out what goes where in our garbage,” says Monson. “I’ll put a jar of salsa in the recycle and my wife says, ‘You can’t do that unless it’s rinsed out.’ I don’t want to rinse it out. I just want to throw it away.”

The City of Seattle has a recycling goal of 60 percent by 2015 and 70 percent by 2022. It has identified food and compostable waste as a big area for potential growth.

The ordinance description says the new recycling requirements for food waste and compostable paper could divert around 38,000 tons per year, which it says is over the 30,000 tons needed to reach the 2015 recycling goal.

But Monson thinks the whole recycling thing is not worth all the effort.

“Recycling is one of the biggest scams in America. We burn as much energy with all these stupid recycling plants and specified recycling trucks going up and down our streets, we burn as much energy as we save with all the recycling.”

The council will consider the issue this month. If approved, fines would begin in July of 2015.