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Be A Virgo Or Else! “S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash”

August 4th, 2008 @ 5:15 pm by Elsa

Outtakes and various other sundries

Saturn is in Virgo and S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash

“Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents’ trash to make sure pizza crusts aren’t mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

And if residents or businesses don’t separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped…”

Read the rest – SF Gate

Astrology, Outtakes, saturn-in-virgo, 5 comments | Posted at 5:15 pm

5 Responses to “Be A Virgo Or Else! “S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash””

Becca

When I lived in Chapel Hill, NC, ten years ago, if there was recyclable cardboard in the garbage dumpster at my apartment complex the garbage men wouldn’t collect the trash until someone got the cardboard out…usually the complex’s maintenance men had to do it, and boy, did they hate that.

A thousand-dollar fine seems excessive, though.

8/4/08 @ 7:19 pm (reply)

jjj

Lol, I am a Virgo, and yes, on the West Coast I have been sorting my trash since the early 70′s when you had to take the cans to the recycling center yourself. I’ve seen this whole thing evolve over the years in various places in various ways. (In L.A. for example, no one (still) gives a crap about where all the garbage goes.) In San Luis County, Central Coast, they don’t want you to sort the stuff at all, but it all gets recycled. I find this very disconcerting. (because it all, once again, looks like garbage). Oops, I forgot, you do have to put your organic waste elsewhere. In Tokyo, during my 10 years there in the 80′s, the trash only had to be sorted into burnable and unburnable garbage. If you didn’t sort properly, it was all there for your neighbors to see and tsk, tsk about. Is Japan a Virgoan country, I wonder? Does anyone know?

8/4/08 @ 10:09 pm (reply)

mudlikesubstance

Oh Japan is much more “sortable” now. I was there more recently and each city has it’s own color scheme for which bags you sort what into. Compost is sorted, recyclables are sorted, toxics are sorted (ie cat litter), large items are special pick-up, and then there are the various landfill vs. burnable types of “normal” items.

My city couldn’t tell me – in a multipage booklet where to put my tooth floss. Tooth floss is still not that commonly used over there. They were a bit confused as to the category it belonged in.

While, in general, I’m not liking the saturn virgo control stuff and loss of personal choice this particular thing I don’t see any harm in doing and see lots of social/societal benefits to better sorted garbage. First it makes you pay attention to what types of things you’re buying and disposing of (awareness is the first step towards change) and second it can make the landfills last a lot longer because compostables are a large large portion of your garbage (if you’re already recycling) and those are nutrients that can go back into your garden so it’s a more efficient cycle in the long run.

The one thing that totally got me about Japan’s system was that everything was put into a plastic bag. They came in different sizes – with different costs, of course, and every city had a different color scheme. Like in my city brown would be compostables but our neighbor would be yellow or pink for compostables.

The first thing you do as a guest is ask “nani gomi” which means “which garbage” as you hold up your gum or kleenex or whatever. It DOES bring awareness.

8/5/08 @ 8:06 am (reply)

jjj

Here, here!

I’d just like to say, YES! Where has all the awareness gone? It all first starts with our ‘usage.’ (Dare I say “consumption?”)

I’m not a soft drink (or bottled anything) drinker. I am still non-plussed every time I have a party or some kind of get-together, and when it’s over I’m left with a small mountain of assorted bottles and cans. (“Why don’t these people take these things home with them?”, I’m always asking.) Thing is, remember how simple it was in former days when (as for the beverage), all mom had to do was throw away the little paper package the Kool-Aid came in, and occasionally the paper bag of the sugar. Modern marketing and consuming: it keeps us all so very busy! Let’s call it “the dharma of commerce.”

8/5/08 @ 9:45 am (reply)

andro

lol! gotta love the west coast.. you know in Japan they make people use clear bags so that the garbage man and all of your neighbors know whether you’ve sorted your trash or not.

8/6/08 @ 12:54 pm (reply)