Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Jeffy's Corner: Recycling Police

Episode Date: September 19, 2015

Jeff Fisher is live from 6am to 8am ET, Saturday. Listen for free on The Blaze Radio Network: www.theblaze.com/radio & www.iheart.comFollow Jeffy on Twitter @JeffyMRA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Jeff Fisher Show. Hey, it's Glenn, and I want to remind you, peace of mind is tough to come by these days unless you have a Liberty Safe. With a Liberty Safe, you won't worry when you leave the house because you'll know your valuables are protected. And right now, you can get free delivery to your home on any Liberty Safe. Go to LibertySafe.com for factory direct pricing. LibertySafe.com made in the USA, lifetime warranty, and peace of mind. LibertySafe.com. So how many of you have...

Recycling and regular trash pickup. Many people do. I do in my neighborhood, where I live here in Texas. And I just, last night, last night I was picking up all the trash from upstairs. I go upstairs to the children's part of the upstairs, the filth part of the house. And I'm cleaning it out, smoking it up, and soda cans. I bring them down, just throw them in the trash. Let's throw them in the trash.

I know there's recycling. I know we've got the little recycling basket right next to the regular trash. So you put your cans and stuff that recycled right in there. But there are times when I just, I don't care. I don't care. I'm not going to mess around with a little bag here. I'm putting in the trash. I'm done.

So then, and I know that my father-in-law, my mother-in-law and father-in-law, I know that that drives my father-in-law. Insane. He can't. He can't take it. He's got to take the recycling stuff out of the trash and put it in the recycling and then take it out to the recycling can. And so I usually, you know, just shake my head and walk by. You know, I don't care.

Last night, I was, I see him doing it. I'm like, you know, you don't have to do that. They're not, there's no recycling police that's going to stop by and say, hey, You had three soda cans in your trash bag, and those should have been in the recycling. Now, I have had it the other way around. Well, no, that's the same way, actually. There was a time, and if I find the, oh, I want this to happen when I'm home so bad, and it never will because I'm never there when the trash guy comes.

But the recycling bin was full. and my regular trash thing was full, but I had some big boxes, cardboard boxes that I wanted to get rid of, and I just stuffed those in the top of the trash can. So, you know, that the top was still, wouldn't close 100%, but was still, you know, leaning up against the boxes.

And so when the trash truck comes by with this, you know, automated grippers, robot arms, he picks it up, drops to the back, moves on. So I get home. and the boxes that I had put on top. Now, it might have been someone else in the neighborhood now that I'm talking to it out loud, but I don't know that because it's written on the boxes this should be in recycling. And I about blew a gasket.

And I was ready to hop in the car and drive around and try to find the trash driver. Because your job ain't to do that, pal. your job is to take your little robot arm truck and pick up my pick up that can with stuff in it and drop it in that big dumpster behind you put my can back down on the road and drive away that's your job that's what I pay for I don't pay you to stop and say oh that should be in recycling I'm not picking that up well in Seattle that's exactly what you have it's exactly what you have nine full-time solid waste inspectors have been hired as part of a controversial program to check city trash to make sure people are recycling.

Holy crap. Now there's, you know, the program is now riddled with lawsuits and people are mad saying it's intrusive government program. Look, I understand people have noble goals, said Kelly Carander, who got tagged two weeks in a row. The fines don't start until the first of the year, by the way. But she said at some point, we have to say, you can't violate my rights to achieve this noble goal.

Well, actually, Kelly, think again. Now, 14,000 residents, 14,000 residential and commercial customers have been tagged. The sticker warns them that more than 10% of their trash content should have been recycled or put into compound bins. The horror. Now the Supreme Court, now they ruled that once you put your trash out to the curb,

that's open season. Okay? It's not protected under the Fourth Amendment. No privacy protections. It's open season once you roll that bad boy out to the curb. Now, the Supreme Court of Washington State said, not so fast.

Our state constitution provides better protection, and we believe that people expect that our garbage is going to be protected from prying eyes. Yes, we do. We all do. Now, of course, you know, the ruling was criminal conviction because it was overturned on the grounds that the police

found a key piece of evidence in the trash without first obtaining a search warrant. But if you go back to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court says they need a search warrant, right? Because it's open season. State of Washington says, you do. People don't think of that. It's open season.

Now, look, the mandatory composting ordinance calls for fines ranging from $1 to $50 starting the first of the year, as I said. But there's no appeals process because the trash is already gone, right? So what are you going to do? You get the ticket, you got to pay it. Or you'll end up having the city coming and arresting you for trash fines. Now, the city, he said, look, listen, the policy upholds the state constitution and the civil liberties. There's no intention of opening trash bags. Containers are only tagged and the contamination is clearly visible.

containers are only tagged if the contamination is clearly visible. If you have some sort of item that needs to be recycled or that we feel should be recycled and it's in the other trash bin, it is contamination. So, so we're, you know, for your safety, my friend, your safety. Uh-huh. Pure Opelka with Mike Opelka. I don't want to make you mad, but I have a feeling a couple of the stories I want to talk about this week are going to really have you spinning, steaming, stomping.

Wait a minute, that's what they did to me. I'll share them with you anyway. Please join us. Pure Opelka, Saturday's 8 to 9 a.m. Eastern on the Blaze Radio Network.