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Seattle Can’t Stop Digging Through Residents’ Trash, Despite Judge’s Order

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Seattle officials still want to dig through trash to fine residents for tossing food waste even after a judge ordered the city to stop.

King County Superior Judge Beth Andrus recently ruled city officials must get a warrant before digging through residents’ trash to enforce a ban against throwing food waste in the garbage, Watchdog.org reported. Trash collectors were previously ordered to rummage through garbage for violations. (RELATED: Judge To Seattle Trash-Cops: Can it)

The trash diggers breached citizens’ privacy rights, Andrus said.

But Seattle officials are “recalibrating” the regulation and are considering an appeal, The Seattle Times reported.

“In other words, they are deciding whether they should spend more public money to continue a legal battle over what people through in the garbage,” Watchdog.org wrote.

The ban began Jan. 1, 2015, and prohibits Seattle residents from trashing compostable food, like banana peels. Violators could be fined $1 for each item. (RELATED: Eco-Activists: Go Green, Compost Your Dead!)

“Because God forbid anyone want [sic] to dispose of chicken parts in a trash can instead of letting them fester away in a homemade compost bin, right?” Watchdog.org reporter Eric Boehm said. He also noted the absurdity of forcing apartment renters “to keep a steaming pile of chicken guts, rotten vegetable and old egg salad rotting away in one corner of the kitchen.”

More than 100,000 tons of food waste was sent to Seattle landfills before the ban, according to Seattle Public Utilities.

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