I used to give my dogs the table scraps, back when I had "real" dogs.

Then again I had a cotton ball show cut bichon-frise who ate an entire blackberry frozen pie with a side of pasta and a little salad. My favorite was when he ate a large pizza but got too full and decided to just eat the cheese and later just the pepperoni. Loved that dog.

I actually throw out a lot of food because I'm a single woman.

Just liberals doing things that make them feel good about themselves.

Aww, what a shame: Smartphone passwords can't be "bypassed" any more - and feds think this is bad.

Ah. The solution is easy. Just go to McDonalds are some such place with tons of packaging or use your garbage disposal. Bad solutions, but at least you will avoid that onerous fine!

I actually throw out a lot of food because I'm a single woman.

Good point. What if it goes bad? This has to it shades of hiding stuff from your mother.

Gregg made some salmon recently that just didn't come out well. He's used to getting it at the grocery store and he bought some (not cheap!) at Whole Foods and it came out mushy. I hate to waste food, so I put some of it in salad, but I just couldn't eat the rest.

Garbagemen writing tickets. I'm sure much hilarity will ensue.
"But I don't like fruitcake. And besides, the way she bakes it; it isn't a compostable item."

California government just keeps on finding new ways to become a punchline.

I live in Toronto where the rules about garbage and recycling are strict. Garbage is picked up every two weeks and limited to a certain small amount. As a result, people needing to get rid of stuff just dump their unwanted trash and large items in the park, into ravines, along highways and roadways, at dumpsters they're unauthorised to use, and even on other homeowner's lawns. Sometimes the rules cause more harm to the environment than good. What's more, a study showed that the salt content is so high in the organic waste that it is unusable as compost. This link is actually from a left-leaning paper: http://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2009/07/04/green_bins_a_wasted_effort.html

"How do you accurately calculate the 10%?"

You don't. Prosecutorial discretion. Prosecutors loooooove discretion.

"Is a $1 fine a real deterrent?"

No, but it gets the foot in the door. It'll be a $500 fine before you know it.

"As a result, people needing to get rid of stuff just dump their unwanted trash and large items in the park, into ravines, along highways and roadways,"

Yep, I've driven in Toronto and I've seen that myself. There used to be a ravine off the 401 near the airport that was an unofficial landfill. (Until Air France parked an A340 in it.)

@ Sabrina: Yes, California is a punchline. And Seattle is a city in Washington; populated, no doubt, by many ex-Californians.
If they tried that system here, the bureaucrats would have to design a ticketing form that could be used by non-English-speaking garbage truck operators. In composting terms, that's a can of worms we don't want to open.

Here in the SF area the city I live in just started the plastic bag ban, and even the grocery I go to that always had only paper bags now has to charge 10 cents per bag, I will go to the next town over to shop. It is lunacy. Cities run by watermelons, green on the outside red on the inside.

A close friend went to school in Vancouver, B.C. for a couple of years, where they have epic recycling rules.

She received a tart note from her landlady, who apparently made a point of checking her tenants' recycle/compost bins and didn't think my friend's recycling was up to her standard. Ludicrous.

Is that ten percent by weight or volume? Cinder blocks or plastic peanuts are your answer, Seattle.

"In composting terms, that's a can of worms"

Nice.

Can we hand out points for this type of writing please?

I'm not a chemist, but doesn't composting create greenhouse gases? Will the cost to purchase carbon credits to compost be more or less than the fine?

Seattle already has a ban on plastic bags.

I wonder if the $1 fine goes to the city or the politically connected, monopoly garbage collection company. If they can add $1 a week to 100,000 bills that's potentially an additional $5 million a year more for somebody's pocket.

What if the neighborhood is NOT a suitable place for compost bins because they attract too many vermin?

Yea, spare the landfill but have everyone living with more bugs, cockroaches, and rats!

What if the neighborhood is NOT a suitable place for compost bins because they attract too many vermin?

And what is one to do with all that compost? I imagine that if someone were a gardener they'd already be composting. Shall we force everyone to grow tomatoes and corn?

"If they tried that system here, the bureaucrats would have to design a ticketing form"

The city & county of San Francisco passed a compost law in 2009, I think. Last time I checked, they truck the scraps to a compost landfill 70 miles north, which seems weird if they want to cut greenhouse gasses.

But there is a new food scrap digester in east Bay or Marin County that makes energy from the food waste. Sounds sorta interesting.

Like Charles said, I would think the waste bins on the street would attract critters.

Steve Daniels: "Shall we force everyone to grow tomatoes and corn?"

Yes, and charge them a fee for a permit to grow a garden, and then fine them if they plant it in some unauthorized location.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/vegetable-garden-brings-criminal-charges-oak-park-michigan/story?id=14047214

The problem with fine that's big enough to be a deterrent is that people will stop doing the thing the fine is for, and then the authorities can't collect the fine. A fine that's not big enough to deter anyone can be a big money maker.

Yes, it is absurd. Seattle's recycling program for papger/glass/metal is driven by very high landfill costs. The fact that it is cost-effective is beside the point to most of the irrational eco-freaks who endorse the program, but the result is both rational and irrational people support Seattle's recycling.

A well-regarded program like this presents an irrisistable attraction to 'progressive' people for governmental expansion. Add in the fact that most of us don't want to pay much attention to garbage, and trash collection rules became the latest left-wing playground.

(There's a metaphone somewhere in that preceeding paragraph, getting clubbed over the head like a baby seal.)

The net result is hipsters striving to quiet their insecurities by being morally superior. The local controverises are silly: pizza boxes go in the trash because greasy paper isn't recyclable - just the bottom of the box, or the whole box? Plastic bags from the gorcery store are evil and must be taxed - but garbage in the dumpster is required to be wrapped in - yes, you guessed it - in a plastic bag.

So - the city can raise taxes, pander to the morally preening, tell people what to do, and increase their chance of re-election by supporting this silliness - what's not to love?