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This has been very controversial here. We have no control over who happens to walk by our trash/recycling bins on the curb. Anything can be deposited in them by anyone. Haven't we all had a bottle or a piece of trash in our hand while we're walking down a street and put it in someone's bin? (Of course the correct one!) We can't be held responsible for what sits out on public property for anyone to use before the garbage service comes by to "inspect" it.

I would think that the people who go through my trash and steal my recycling take care of that already.

I applaud some of Newsom's efforts but enough is enough. He should be focusing on the rising crime rates and the overall infrastructure of the City.

Ditto what oakland says. Our trash gets tampered with every week.

San Francisco has "garage" service?

This should get the "Serial Mom" recycling award.

i think its great.
i use to live on vancouver island with the same rule and it worked out awesomely.
plus, they arent too strick with giving out penalties, its more as an incentive.

I like the idea of this - people should have to pay in some way for the costs of their actions, but this seems a bit extreme (up to $1000.

I wish my part of Virginia offered recycling. We have to make a 35-mile round trip to any place that offers recycling. Kinda cancels out the positive effects.

How much more would the sanitation workers demand for "inspecting" the trash? Newsom's already in the pocket of the municipal workers' unions. Most trash and garbage collectors fought long and hard to not have to pick up the cans by hand==does anyone think they're going to pick through for the bottles and cans? The city would be better off contracting out the garbage services and letting the contractors pick out the recycling.
And you already pay for this service--why pay more?

Don't tread on me.

No only do strangers throw random garbage in our bins, we share our garbage bins with other tenants in the building, some of whom do not properly recycle, despite information being posted. If this fine were imposed, I would most likely have to share in the cost of the fine, which I strongly object to. I should not have to pay a fine for others actions.

I'm a crazy recycler & think people should do their part or pay the price. But jerks happen.
Businesses in Toronto pay for Business Yellow Garbage Bags. If you put out anything you haven't paid for, you get fined. It encourages recycling because those bags you don't pay for. However one of our neighbours decided to steal our Yellow Bag one night, put his stuff in it, and put our stuff in a regular black bag. My boss got fined about $600, went to court to argue it & only got the fine cut in half. The law says anything in front of your place before pick up is your responsibility & if someone else is a jerk, that is also your responsibility.

terrifying! terrifying that the government is considering dictating what someone does with their private property, and terrifying that uninformed young people are celebrating it in the interest of "being green".

I'm an eco-fanatic, and LOVE recycling, but I HATE the government telling me what I can and can't do with my personal trash.

Everyone should be outraged... and scared.

Terrifying? The government has always had an interest in what people do with their private property. Building codes, prohibitions against doing things like dumping toxic waste, etc... Unless you manage to resolve all of your personal trash issues without any sort of waste removal service, your trash joins everyone else's trash and it becomes a collective concern. The idea that we're entitled to do whatever we wish, no matter how damaging or wasteful with no repercussions is really an outdated idea. If you don't want anyone dictating what you do with your trash - don't generate any.

You attract more flies with honey than with vinegar.

If you want high levels of participation/cooperation in any project you achieve more with incentives than with punishments.

what part of virginia does this? i have never heard of this "voucher" program and i live in one virginia's largest cities... anyone have the info on this?

also, is that picture attached to this post a t-shirt or something? i love it!

That image can be found on different items in the andyeatsonlycandy etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5110862

minneapolis does something similar, and for all you people worried about one or two pieces of random garbage ending up in your bins, that's not really how it works. . do you think mr joe garbage man really cares about one or two things? or, do you think he really wants to sift through some strangers garbage? no, he just dumps the buckets and moves on. . .but if week after week, you have a LARGE amounts of mixed recycling or improper recycling, then they leave you a warning (first) then you have a week to get your $*^# together, then you get the fine. . .I suppose it isn't as steep here in minneapolis, but while I was in college, we got the warning sticker on our garbage can. . .we started separating our pabst cans from our wine bottles and wala! no fine!

We need to look at the issues other countries are having (IE: the UK) before we try and do any garbage "reform". Incentives seem to be a better way of handling this as opposed to fining.

I'm all for it. We, as a society, need to recycle one way or another, right? And for those who don't want to do their part, taking responsibility for their own 'personal trash', sorting it at the source? They'd pay a fee to have someone else do it... A 1000 buckaroos, perfect!

I think other countries already do this. Honestly, I'm not keen on the idea of being regulated on my garbage, but eh, what the hell. I don't have any real good reasons for it except laziness, and the fact some people wouldn't care if their service was halted. THey would let it pile up and then I would be stuck living next to them.
No thank you.

I don't really understand this.... the garbagemen have to OPEN each bag and paw through it?! We (who do live in a house, admittedly) have between 6 to 12 bags of trash a WEEK. You're telling me that someone, even a contractor, is going to take the time to open, sift, and pitch each bag!? Come on.

Plus, this just reeks of identity theft. Sure we SHOULD be shredding our credit card statements and whatnot, but not everyone does, and you don't always need a credit card statement to steal an identity. This is massive crime waiting to happen.

Is there an option for people who don't want the government interfering with their trash?

i think recycling and to some degree composting should be mandatory - but i think these proposed measures are a terrible way to enforce it. $1000? for a resident? holy crap. my neighbors constantly put their mcdonalds garbage in my recycling bin when it's on the curb. and why, WHY!?! would they threaten to stop your garbage service? i don't know about SF but in Oakland, landlords are obligated to pay for garbage service at their rental units because it is illegal NOT to have garbage service (public health!) and they do not want the responsibility shifted to tenants. so a punishment of not picking up your trash seems really counterproductive.

It doesn't work to have the government making money from actions it is trying to "discourage". Take the cigarette tax, for example. The government stopped raising the tax for a period in the 90's because it was discouraging too many people from smoking. Because the government needed the revenue, they didn't want to do anything that might get more people to quit because the revenue would fall. They just wanted to cash in. The trick was finding a tax figure that was as high as it could be without forcing people to actually alter their behavior.

Recently, LA passed a law requiring that stores charge 25 cents per plastic bag to "discourage" plastic bag use. What do you want to bet that the bags will never go away if the government is profiting on their use.

These ploys are simply a way for the city to raise revenue by riding on the coattails of the latest trend. They aren't designed to improve anything except the balance sheet. If the city wants to improve recycling results, they can offer free trash pickup to the homes whose recycling quantity matches or exceeds their garbage quantity. If the city is going to poke around in my garbage, they should at least come up with a solution that rewards improved behavior.