Quote:
Originally Posted by mhays
So all these problems are under the current system?
The topic is whether the NEW system will create problems.
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It will very clearly exacerbate the problems. More cans and a financial incentive to (A) have the smallest black bin possible, and (B) clear opportunity (with minimal downside) to put any excess into (i) your neighbors' black cans or (ii) purple and green cans, polluting those with inappropriate refuse.
This is not difficult or complicated. Nobody is saying it can't work, or that it doesn't work elsewhere. But I do not know the first thing about those other systems.
The nuances of the system we are actually implementing very clearly (1) deny the realities of current issues (lack of acknowledgement of these issues is clear from both DOTI's statements and the discussions at Council; it's as if none of them live in the same City as the rest of us, which in the case of DOTI staffers, is frequently true, and (2) because there is no acknowledgement of today's challenges, there is not even discussion around whether the new financial incentive might serve to exacerbate those problems. Which common sense and the basic economics of personal incentives would suggest is beyond obvious.
Money incentivizes behaviors. When we implement a tax credit, we believe that. When we implement a tax/fee, it will do the same.
Yes, a tax on black cans, priced by quantity, will reduce the amount of stuff going into black cans. It's quite a leap of liberal people-are-good faith to suggest that means the amount of stuff generated that
belongs in a black can also goes down, without considering other, very legitimate concerns about where that material might go.
When the City cut back the days for large item pickups, do you think that reduced the number of couches and mattresses dumped in the alleys? I seriously doubt it. (I just toss them into the middle of the alley - when they block traffic, then people care, and they seem to magically disappear.)