High-tech carts will tell on Cleveland residents who don't recycle ... and they face $100 fine

I just got a letter from my homeowner's association (which, among other things, contracts for waste disposal in the neighborhood) asking me if I wanted to pay another 30 bucks per year so I could recycle. I assume that's to pay for an additional service. I wrote on the letter "Not no, but hell no!". If it can't make money on it's own it's got no business being in business.

Now we have bureaucrats in Cleveland telling it's taxpayers they must recycle or else. I wonder how much the taxpayers of the city are paying for the service. Not to mention for the idiots in the bureaucracy and the city council who directed this.

High-tech carts will tell on Cleveland residents who don't recycle ... and they face $100 fine | cleveland.com


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It would be a stretch to say that Big Brother will hang out in Clevelanders' trash cans, but the city plans to sort through curbside trash to make sure residents are recycling -- and fine them $100 if they don't.


The move is part of a high-tech collection system the city will roll out next year with new trash and recycling carts embedded with radio frequency identification chips and bar codes.


The chips will allow city workers to monitor how often residents roll carts to the curb for collection. If a chip show a recyclable cart hasn't been brought to the curb in weeks, a trash supervisor will sort through the trash for recyclables.


Share Trash carts containing more than 10 percent recyclable material could lead to a $100 fine, according to Waste Collection Commissioner Ronnie Owens....


City Council on Wednesday approved spending $2.5 million on high-tech carts for 25,000 households across the city, expanding a pilot program that began in 2007 with 15,000 households.

Gee, I wonder if the city is broke. Like most cities in this country. But this fact doesn't stop idiots from wasting money.

OK, got it. Now how much does it cost to fund the buercracy to oversee this crap? For some reason this article doesn't cover that.

...Recycling is good for the environment and the city's bottom line, officials said. Cleveland pays $30 a ton to dump garbage in landfills, but earns $26 a ton for recyclables.

The city last year sent 220,000 tons of garbage to landfills and collected 5,800 tons of recyclables.

...The city stepped up enforcement of ordinances governing trash collection last year by issuing 2,900 tickets, nearly five times more tickets than in 2008. Those infractions include citations for people who put out their trash too early or fail to bring in their garbage cans from the curb in a timely manner.

The Division of Waste Collection is on track to meet its goal of issuing 4,000 citations this year, Owens said.

"We're trying to make sure Cleveland stays clean and residents are properly informed on how these things should be set out," he said. "By issuing these tickets, it's helping us change the attitude or perception on how things should be set out." ...
Right...remember, it's always about the money. The city is trying to squeeze a little more money from it's citizens. It won't reform itself and shed worthless programs like this recycling crap. This is what passes for leadership in what was once a great city.