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“Recycle Contamination” fee is multi million dollar scam


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2018 Dec 4, 8:49am   2,059 views  17 comments

by tovarichpeter   ➕follow (6)   💰tip   ignore  

https://abc7news.com/society/richmond-residents-upset-about-fines-for-contaminated-recycling/4825895/

The fee is just an arbitrary undocumented increase in cost of service to residents

Comments 1 - 17 of 17        Search these comments

1   zzyzzx   2018 Dec 4, 9:10am  

It is stupid consumers who throw trash into the recycling bin. I know people who do dumb shit like this because they are too fucking lazy to do it right.
2   tovarichpeter   2018 Dec 4, 9:27am  

No it’s stupid rate payers who don’t recognize when they are being scammed by a multi billion dollar corporation and its union employees. Republic is starting this in Richmond and then plans to expand it to Central Contra Costa. It is an illegal rate increase pure and simple and the link between the city council members and Republic.
3   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Dec 4, 9:33am  

All recycling fees are scams.

Companies are chosen by politicians to be paid by taxpayers and then make money off reprocessing the material that the law requires you to provide and then separate with free labor, and selling it.

Recyclers should be paying the public to recycle. Taxpayers should be charging them a sorting fee.

There ought to be a minimum of 2-3 recyclers competing to entice the most customers to give them their waste. Dirty Secret is the "Recycling Green SaveTheEarth Company" is often just a subdivision of General National Trash Inc., any old sanitation company.

If it's not economic, then screw recycling.

We are not running out of trees.
4   NuttBoxer   2018 Dec 4, 10:56am  

zzyzzx says
It is stupid consumers who throw trash into the recycling bin. I know people who do dumb shit like this because they are too fucking lazy to do it right.


Exactly. You cannot MAKE people care, they have to do it on their own.
5   Ceffer   2018 Dec 4, 11:20am  

Gee, I thought libbys were in favor of every 'fuck you' grasping, pilfering fee that could be conjured in the brains of the Great Socialist Paradise.
Why do they hate the shakedowns?
6   RWSGFY   2018 Dec 4, 11:21am  

Do they have a solid proof it was the homeowner who "contaminated" the recycling bin? When bins are set at the curb on the garbage day anyone can walk up and put anything into them. Based on this the garbage company should be told to go and fuck themselves.
7   Ceffer   2018 Dec 4, 11:30am  

Gives new meaning to 'garbage fee'.
8   RWSGFY   2018 Dec 4, 12:22pm  

zzyzzx says
It is stupid consumers who throw trash into the recycling bin. I know people who do dumb shit like this because they are too fucking lazy to do it right.



Not so fast: there are plenty of things marked with "recyclable" triangle but these fuckers want to "recycle" only stuff which makes them easy profit for not much effort (aluminum cans and such) and try to weasel out from processing plastics which are not so profitable or even money-losing (like styrofoam, for example). Consumer might be stupid but if this game is truly played in the name of the environment, the fucking garbage company should accept everything marked with the official "recyclable" label, not fucking pick and choose. If this shtick with "contamination fees" is not stopped soon, "stupid consumers" will figure out they can take their aluminum cans and beer bottles to the collection point by themselves and throw the rest of the "recyclables" into the garbage. Compactors will make a comeback.
9   tovarichpeter   2018 Dec 4, 1:30pm  

If this fee were legitimate then alleged violators would receive evidence of their “contamination” violation, and there would be an appeal process. In fact this program has been implemented without public notice, is based entirely on the judgement and the word of Republic employees who benefit financially from the program. Alleged “violatorscontamination” is being claimed much less provided with evidence of a violation and there is no appeal process which would of course expose the whole thing is a sham and just an unjustified and unapproved rate increase. Why is the Richmond city council silent about this. What is the link between Republic and Richmond city council members.
10   SunnyvaleCA   2018 Dec 4, 3:22pm  

Wow, from the article the guy got a fine in the mail that was for putting the wrong stuff in the recycling bin. I'd definitely fight that because the company has no way to verify who put the wrong stuff in there and the bin was out on the curb all night unattended (and unlocked) while awaiting morning pickup. Maybe it was somebody walking by that wanted to throw something out and "illegally" place it in the wrong bin buy the side of the road.
11   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Dec 4, 4:24pm  

California sounds like hell.
12   Automan Empire   2018 Dec 4, 4:57pm  

Curbside recycling is already a chump's game in my suburban LA neighborhood. All night and morning before trash collection, the Gleaners are out in force, cherry picking CRV containers to turn in for cash themselves. They're often messy and loud about it, getting all the neighborhood dogs worked up at 3am as they work their way down alleys sometimes in crews.

During the recession, things got so bad at my business that the trash company repo'd my dumpster. I started loading up my Harbor Freight trailer with the trash and taking it to the dump when it's full. This takes me about an hour, and saves me at least $300 a month. Hell, if I could make $300 an hour taking trash to the dump, I'd sell my auto shop and do that part time!

At the transfer station, much of the trash is scooped directly into transfer dump haulers for the landfill. They separate out dirt and concrete, and wood, and large plastics, but most everything gets scooped right up. Once in a great while they set up 10 people along a conveyor to make a pretense of sorting recyclables, but I see that in operation like 1% of the times I've ever been there.
13   Philistine   2018 Dec 4, 5:26pm  

News flash. A lot of the legitimate materials you put in the recycle bin end up in the trash anyway. All the best things like the gin bottles your neighbors tote out to the bins after midnight so nobody will know--that stuff gets noisily pilfered by the rag-and-bone man in the wee hours of the morning, as AE pointed out above, creating lots of 4 a.m. jingle jangle and inviting the riff raff to your hood on a weekly basis.

My new fave is our section of LA county now "mandates" we collect our recyclables in a plastic bag before putting in the recycling can . . . thus contributing more plastic shit to the environment. I don't give a fuck at this point. I'm changing my oil in the driveway and letting the dregs go right into the sewer grate.
14   Hircus   2018 Dec 4, 11:08pm  

They said you can call them and get your specific violation. Gee, they're worried about money, yet they have money to field all the phone calls they will inevitably get by every person. Who would NOT want to know what they did wrong. It should be listed in the fine.

I kinda like the idea though. If it's true that people's laziness in filling their bins appropriately is causing a substantial increase in processing costs, then they should do something about it. It sucks when good citizens who play by the rules are forced to pay for those who don't, and this system directly attacks the miscreants. But I question the cost of "contamination". I doubt it's hard to just sort that stuff into the trash bin, unless I misunderstand how big a problem it is.

I can't say I've ever made an attempt to research what I should and should not put in my bin, and how to prep the items, but hopefully the company has put forth considerable effort in making such info very easy to access and understand (ya right). IMO each recycle bin should have a sticker on it w/ the basic, and a tinyurl to a website that has more details, so everyone can see the url link each time they use their bin.

Addressing those who live in areas w/ lots of foot traffic that might use their bin as a dumpster is a problem w/ no easy solution. Maybe the solution for those very few people is to not recycle.
15   tovarichpeter   2018 Dec 5, 1:49pm  

Why should you have to call and speak to an employee of Republic to find out what you are being charged for? What about evidence e.g. photo. Why no right of appeal. Does the city contract with Republic allow them to arbitrarily impose additional charges on customers whenever and however it pleases and prohibit those who are assessed these extra charges from protesting or Complaint? Even the city does not have that right so how can it award it to private profit making company? Who agreed to that contract.
16   epitaph   2018 Dec 5, 5:21pm  

Just take your recycling to a company that pays you for it.
17   tovarichpeter   2018 Dec 6, 5:03pm  

Best idea ever.

A friend of mine just posted a great idea on Facebook to get rid of of all the junk you want to get rid of but which might subject you to a fine by the recycle police. Just put it all in AMAZON boxes, retake the boxes and then leave them on your front porch. In most neighborhoods he says this is guaranteed to work.

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