And more like this

Food-trash recycling at homes to be required by Seattle in '09

All single-family homes in Seattle must sign up for table-scrap recycling in 2009, the City Council decided Monday. ... Reducing food trash was a piece of a larger plan the council unanimously approved Monday to reduce the amount of garbage sent to the landfill.

This is good, but it certainly needs more. For one, apartment buildings and businesses are exempted from the requirement (though they can voluntarily sign up, just like the current system in place for everyone in the city) and the setup as currently envisioned is sure to upset many people. Instead of simply supplying a yard/food waste bin similar to our current recycling bins, the city is going to offer multiple sizes of bin and charge different rates for each, similar to the current garbage can system.

That part is ridiculous in multiple ways. First, it's absurd to charge people additional fees to reduce the city waste stream. Unlike regular garbage, which must be disposed of in a landfill, all the food and yard waste is sent to a regional composting facility, which then sells the resulting product in stores. This is akin to recycling, where companies buy recyclable materials and turn them into new products which they sell to industry and consumers. The city simply includes any recycling costs (pickup, transportation and maintenance) in the standard household utility bills, so why should mandatory composting bins be any different?

Similarly, why are we encouraging people to select smaller bins for cheaper rates? This is likely to encourage people to just get the smallest bin available and dispose of any extra food or yard waste in their regular garbage can, just like they currently do... which negates the entire purpose of mandating food scrap collection!

The most logical plan of action here would be to provide "free" composting cans to all households (and by all means make multiple sizes available since households do vary in waste production!), then increase the cost of garbage can collection to cover any additional fees this new collection requires.

This would encourage people to select smaller garbage cans (thereby saving them some waste collection costs), which will likewise encourage them to separate out more of their recyclable and compostable waste. Some fine-tuning of costs and collection will probably be required as the system comes into full use and people adjust their waste habits, but that's to be expected and should be fairly transparent to the end user if done correctly.