Newsom Allies Break Ranks To (Unsuccessfully) Oppose Recycling Legislation

This legislation sounds well-intentioned and stuff, but I've yet to have seen a recycling bin at a multi-unit residential building utilized properly. In other words, people toss their styrofoam packaging, old lamps, vacuum cleaners, you name it into the recycling bins ... and when 100's of people live in the building, who gets the ticket? Does this mean homeowner's associations need to hire their own individual refuse/recycling/composting sorter people on premises? That's fine with me if we can deduct the costs out of our property taxes, BUT ...

We'll see how well this is enforced ... and will it be enforced equally across neighborhoods. How do you spell LAWSUIT?

I cannot believe this is actually happening. The recycling will be disastrous enough -- as Jamie points out, the city does an absolutely abysmal job of explaining what can and can't go in the bins. But expecting people to understand composting? The stink of rotting food is going to be unbearable.

There's an extremely simple rule of thumb for the green bin - if it was ever alive (and not plastic) it can go in there. Paper coffee cup - one was a tree. Its lid - plastic, embossed with recycling logo, goes in blue bin. If people can get through college, they can figure out how to sort their waste.

I understand a compromise was reached on the issue of landlords having to pay for their tenants' violations. Does anyone know what it was?

The point of the fine is to have a mechanism for punishing people who don't recycle. If the landlord has to pay the fine and can't pass it on to the tenant, there's certainly no punishment for the tenant and therefore no reason for the tenant to comply. You can bet that all leases signed from this day forward will include a clause about this, but I wonder the legality of trying to pass through what the tenant will call a "garbage expense," especially in the vast majority of cases where the lease says the landlord pays the garbage costs otherwise.