Fail to recycle and face city fine in Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) - Fail to recycle in Seattle and you can get a ticket from the garbage collector.

The city says it will start enforcing new recycling requirements on Jan. 1 with warnings tags. Careless residents will start seeing fines July 1 on their bills - $1 per violation, $50 for a commercial or apartment building.

KING reports (http://kng5.tv/1x05xbg) garbage collectors will peek in the trash bin to see if more than 10 percent of the waste is food scraps and recyclable materials.

Seattle Public Utilities estimates 36% of what's currently in the trash shouldn't be there. The new ordinance is expected to divert as much as 38,000 more tons of food scraps from the landfill each year.

It's part of the city's goal to reach a 60% recycling rate in 2015.

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Information from: KING-TV, http://www.king5.com/