The garbage man in Scott Adams’ “Dilbert” comic strip has always been much more than a mere collector of trash. Over the years he’s been scientific sounding board, counselor, supplier of dating advice, and a somewhat dyspeptic life coach, but never just a garbage man.
Now the irreplaceable California Political Review reports that garbage collectors in Seattle will in the future become the garbage police.
It started with a typical bit of leftist moral posturing.
The Seattle City Council decided by the year 2015 an impressive 60 percent of the Seattle refuse stream would be recycled. And through public education the city has achieved a rate of 56 percent compliance, which is even more impressive when you consider at that time the law did not require single-family homes, apartment dwellers, or commercial institutions to recycle.
But falling only 4 percentage points short of the goal was not the organic utopia envisioned by the Seattle City Council. Now trash collectors will be given the power to fine people who toss “too many table scraps” into trash, because suggestions for good conduct from leftist elites are always followed sooner or later by coercion.
The Seattle Times explains, “Under the new rules, collectors can take a cursory look each time they dump trash into a garbage truck. If they see compostable items make up 10 percent or more of the trash, they’ll enter the violation into a computer system their trucks already carry, and will leave a ticket on the garbage bin that says to expect a $1 fine on the next garbage bill.”
There are no details on how the trash men will be able to accurately measure your garbage to determine when the potato peels and rotten tomatoes exceed the allowable and cross the 11 percent red line. And there is no word on whether or not the offending evidence will be preserved to allow residents to be weighed on the scales of justice (pun intended).
Seattle’s equivalent of Ed Norton will be judge, jury, and prosecutor for those who don’t spend as much time sorting the trash as they do sorting the laundry.
Naturally the vote in favor of fining residents for not segregating trash was a unanimous 9 to 0. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky the council didn’t add plumbing supervision to the city’s powers.
In fact, for a left that’s always seeking more ways to control the rest of us, I have an idea: If the Seattle City Council combined their trash restrictions with Michelle Obama’s lunch diktats, residents there would enjoy a comprehensive regulatory regime that controlled your diet from ingress to egress.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation and chairman of the League of American Voters. Mike is an in-demand speaker with Premiere. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.