Where are my friends of the environment on this one? I suspect that most of the folks who placed the trash at the curbside would be happy to know their waste was being recycled rather than sent to fill up yet another landfill.
And what kind of cop has the time to harass a guy for collecting bottles for recycling? Sometimes the laws we make have such ridiculous consequences as to render the law, lawmaker and law enforcer idiotic.
This appears to be one of those times.....
Homeless man warned for collecting bottles
CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, October 05, 2007OTTAWA (CNS) -- Marcel Foucault collects pension money from years spent in construction, painting, dishwashing and as a laundromat worker.
What really puts food in his mouth, however, is his daily routine near downtown Ottawa for the past 16 years -- rain, shine, or snow.
Foucault, a homeless man, collects liquor bottles and beer cans from roadside recycling boxes and garbage cans. All for a couple hundred dollars each month.
Recently, two bylaw officers approached Foucault and warned he could be fined between $150 and $10,000.
A city bylaw, passed in 2006, prohibits any scavenging of any waste placed out for collection. Furniture and other loose, bulky items are excepted. The maximum fine is $10,000 for a first offence and up to $25,000 for additional transgressions.
Bylaw officers hand out the bulletins to educate people on scavenging, not to threaten them, said Dixon Weir, of the City of Ottawa.
