A million here, a million there...

San Francisco columnists Matier and Ross mentioned my encounter with the Garbage cops in today's chronicle.

Here's the excerpt

Garbage raid: Sally Coghlan McDonald was a bit taken aback to get a knock on the door about 6 p.m. recently from four members of San Francisco's "garbage police."

The Department of the Environment crew members announced that they were there to "educate" her on the proper use of her garbage, recycling and compost bins.

McDonald had already suspected something was up, because about a month earlier she had awakened at 5:30 a.m. to the sound of an inspector "with his head all the way in my garbage can using a flashlight and writing things down on a clipboard."

She later received a notice, complete with pictures, showing the sorting mistakes she was making.

"I threw a napkin with food on it into the recycle bin when it should have been composted," McDonald said.

Department of the Environment spokesman Guillermo Rodriguez confirmed that as part of the city's effort to achieve "zero waste," 10 inspectors and outreach "ambassadors" have been assigned to flip the lids to look into how folks are sorting their garbage - at an annual cost of $1 million.

So far, nobody's been ticketed.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Muni-arrives-in-S-F-s-top-overtime-spot-4191067.php#ixzz2HzHJzXNh

One million dollars!!!!!!!!!! to send people to look through trans and then to my house - four at a time-  to "educate" me. I know a million dollars is not a lot in the world of government, but it is still A MILLION DOLLARS. That money could make quite a difference for the disabled children of this city. 


Their version was a little less outraged than my initial reaction in my post of December 7

Maggie World: Garbage Hell