Justice
Seattle Tries Shaming Its Citizens Into Participating in Composting
The city's "scarlet letter" system joins a long line of policies designed to embarrass. But do they work?
As of January 1, the garbage produced by Seattle residents has come under a new kind of scrutiny. Workers for Recology CleanScapes, which handles recycling for the city, are looking in regular garbage bins for things that shouldn’t be there—specifically, food scraps. Residents who fail to comply with new regulations barring food waste from being placed in general trash will find their bins marked with a bright red sticker.
"I'm sure neighbors are going to see these on their other neighbors' cans,” a worker for Recology told a local public radio reporter. This “scarlet letter,” in the reporter’s words, will let everyone on the block know which households are contributing more than their fair share to the public waste stream.