It was bad enough when Seattle announced that garbage men have the right to go through your garbage to determine if you are improperly disposing recyclables. On Friday, our garbage man told Rhonda that it’s actually much worse than that.
Seems that every night, a small legion (nay, army?) of garbage police patrol Seattle’s streets in white minivans looking for residences that have extra garbage ready for pickup the following day. Apparently they take notes, filming it in many cases. They use that information as “evidence” of extra garbage, which gets billed out at $6/can. If the driver does not mark the resident for extra garbage pickup the following day, he gets written up. If the resident calls to complain about a false extra garbage charge, as I do often, the City uses the video evidence as proof of extra garbage. All to make $6.
Seinfeld's soup nazi has nothing on Seattle's garbage collectors.
To review: the Earth, we are told, is all but melting due to global warming. Times are so tight these days that the City can’t spare two nickels. But it can afford to pay garbage police to roam the city in polluting vehicles filming garbage cans. And all to make an occasional $6.
If anyone knows who comes up with these ideas, or if anyone knows of another so-called free country where taxpayer dollars are used to monitor the garbage, please let me know.
