America the Messy Yard Police State

Glendale messy yard cops search trash cans

OK Motherf*cker! Put you hands up in the air. I saw you toss that tissue paper you blew your nose on into the recycling trash can instead of the regular trash can where it belongs.

Glendale messy yard cops dig thru trash cans looking for dangerous criminals who (gasp) throw non-recyclable waste in the recycling bin! Jesus don't these government nannies have any real criminals to hunt down?

Source

Glendale inspectors push proper recycling

Sanitation workers go to schools to promote program, police bins

by Carrie Watters - Mar. 9, 2010 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Five inspectors fan out around Glendale in the early morning hours and flip the lids on recycling bins to check if residents are properly sorting items.

If not, the crew tags the green bins, knocks on doors, leaves letters and, as a last resort for repeat offenders, takes away recycling services.

The inspectors say the items they find in recycling bins might be surprising. Dirty diapers, a bowling ball and an engine block have turned up. The city doesn't recycle those.

Rather than just shake their heads and keep on tagging, the sanitation crew got creative.

Last week they donned costumes and hit Glenn F. Burton Elementary School with dancing, music and a message on how to be good recyclers.

It's a skit the guys developed last fall and have been presenting to elementary students around the city.

"We took our show on the road," said Anthony Garcia, an eight-year sanitation worker. "We're having fun."

The city sanitation department has always had some outreach to schools, whether presentations on recycling or field trips to the landfill.

The inspectors have taken it to a new level. They relied on their grandkids to choose popular music from Miley Cyrus, but their own dramatic flair did the rest.

Stuart Kent, who oversees the city's sanitation department, praised the group's effort to reinvigorate Glendale's 10-year-old curbside recycling program. "There's clearly a lot of untapped talent in the group," he said.

In their regular duties, the inspectors are out at 5:15 a.m. several days a week to pop lids. Each inspector checks about 750 recycling bins and 850 regular trash bins per week.

Of about 55,000 Glendale homes signed up for sanitation services, only a couple hundred opt not to take part in recycling or have lost the privilege, Kent said.

If an inspector cites a resident three times for improper recycling, the green bin is removed and the resident is required to go to two-day-per-week regular trash pickup, which costs more money.

The guys hope their efforts with schoolchildren cause the number of non-participants to dwindle even further.

"We're hitting the kids with the message. Let the kids teach the parents," said Tim Miller, who began as a garbage-truck driver in Glendale 16 years ago.

America the Messy Yard Police State