First we had the pet police. Now it appears that we will have the recycling police. Is nothing personal anyone, including how we sort our garbage? And, you will be punished for not recycling to the tune of $105 next year if you do not use your blue and green bins on garbage day. According to Toronto bylaws, residents are required to use their blue bins for recycling and their green bins for compostable material. So far, recycling has been left to the honour system and no one has been rifling through your garbage to ensure that you are doing your civic duty. However, that is all going to change in 2009. The recycling police are going to send letters to residents who don’t put recycling, composting or yard waste out in proper containers, encouraging them to do the right thing. If there is no compliance you will receive a $105 ticket. The city says that they are only looking for blatant offenders, but who decides what qualifies as blatant.

According to Toronto’s director of solid waste, the city is trying to divert 70% of its waste from the dump by 2010. Multi-unit buildings seem to be the major culprits as statistics show that single-family homes will divert 61% of their waste this year, but multi-unit buildings will divert only 18%. Green bins are now being put in 300 multi-unit buildings each month. Doesn’t this statistic negate the whole concept of the garbage police? Recycling bins in multi-unit buildings are communal. How is one to ascertain which of the residents is recycling or not?

Not only does the plan sound flawed, but it is extremely intrusive. George Orwell warned us that “Big bother would be watching you”.  With city employees looking into people’s windows in the hopes of spotting unlicensed pets and others snooping in garbage, perhaps we should use this as an opportunity and solve an unemployment problem by rounding up the peeping Toms in the city and employing them gainfully in a job that they are perfectly suited for.

Image courtesy Flickr