Seattle to impose fine for wasting food

Businesses and residents wasting too much food in the city of Seattle, US, will now be fined, according to new city council rules.

The city council has voted to impose a fine of $1 (£0.61) on households if their garbage comprises of more than 10% compostable waste like food products and paper products, while businesses and apartments will be fined $50.

According to the new set of rules, garbage pickers will keep track of food wastage and notify it in a computerised system if they see too much food waste in a bin. Fines will be added to the customer’s rubbish carting bill.

The Seattle Times said that even multi-unit flats and businesses will be required to limit their food waste but will get two warnings before they are fined.

According to the unanimously passed ordinance, the city will begin issuing warning tickets from 1 January 2015 with the first fines set to be issued from 1 July.

Reuters quoted an environment official as saying that Seattle is only the second major US city after San Francisco to make composting mandatory with the aim of reducing greenhouse emissions. The city already recycles almost 56% of its waste but is trying to increase that to 60% by 2015.

Seattle public utilities solid waste director Tim Croll told Seattle Times that the city has collected less than $2,000 (£1,220) over nine years through a similar programme that banned recyclable items from general rubbish. The rule is implemented as the council want to remind people to separate their waste materials.

While worldwide centres like New York and London have considered implementing similar rules, they haven’t yet adopted any.

The National Resource Defense Council said that the US disposes up to 40% of the food that it purchases.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that only 5% of food scraps are composted, while the UN states that one-third of all food produced is wasted.

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Image: Seattle will impose a fine on people who waste too much food. Photo: courtesy of artur84/freedigitalmedia.net