A Voice Can Be Heard, From Painful Necessity, Commanding, 'To The Compost Heap—Go!'

“The City of Seattle just passed a new trash ordinance that would fine residents and businesses for throwing away too much food,”  Charlie Spiering writes at Big Government. At NRO, Katherine Timpf adds:

The Seattle City Council voted on Monday to fine residents who do not separate food waste from the rest of their trash.

Starting next year, Seattle homeowners busted with food in the trash will be fined $1 per violation. Businesses and apartment complexes will be fined $50.

The idea is to force residents to recycle the scraps into compost bins. The council hopes the law will help the city reach its goal of a recycling rate of 60 percent by next year.

San Francisco already has a mandatory composting law.

It remains unclear whether or not Seattle law enforcement will search through residents’ trash in order to catch violators.

San Francisco already has its own garbage inspectors, praised last year by the leftist busy-bodies at the Atlantic. (In-between running advertorials from Scientology.) But ultimately of course, it’s not like Seattle and San Francisco actually want those laws to observed:

“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against – then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

—Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.