Image caption Seattle will begin issuing warning tickets on 1 January and fining customers on 1 July 
 
 The Seattle city council has voted to fine businesses and residents that do not recycle their food waste. 
 
 Under the new rules, households will be fined $1 (£0.61) if their rubbish bins contain more than 10% food waste, and businesses and apartment buildings $50. 
 
 The city already recycles 56% of its waste but is aiming for 60% by 2015. 
 
 Seattle, in Washington State, is the second US city after San Francisco to make composting mandatory in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 
 
 Composting is the processing of breaking down food and lawn refuse into useable soil through decomposition. 
 
 Up to 40% of food in the US is wasted, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. 
 
 Only 5% of food scraps are composted, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 
 
 Many Seattle homes and businesses have food compost bins but are not required to use them - now they will have to. 
 
 The city will begin issuing warning tickets on 1 January 2015 and fining customers on 1 July, according to the ordinance, which passed unanimously on Monday. 
 
 Media caption One third of all food produced is wasted, the UN estimates 
 
 Under the new rules when Seattle garbage pickers see too much food waste in a rubbish bin, they will note it in a computerised system and the fine will be added to the customer's rubbish carting bill, local media reported. 
 
 Multi-unit flats and businesses will also be required to limit their food waste but will get two warnings before they are fined, according to the Seattle Times newspaper. 
 
 Seattle officials do not expect the programme to be a money-maker for the city, Tim Croll, the Seattle Public Utilities solid waste director, told the newspaper. 
 
 He added the city has collected less than $2,000 (£1,220) over nine years of a similar programme that banned recyclable items from the rubbish. 
 
 "The point isn't to raise revenue," Mr Croll said. "We care more about reminding people to separate their materials." 
 
 Correction 10 October 2014: This report has been amended to clarify that fines will apply for disposing of food waste incorrectly rather than doing so at all. 

 Originally published September 22, 2014 at 8:56 PM | Page modified September 22, 2014 at 10:29 PM 
 
 Seattle residents could start getting small fines next year for putting too much compostable material into the trash. 
 
 The Seattle City Council passed a new ordinance Monday that could mean $1 fines for people who toss too many table scraps into the trash. 
 
 Under current Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) rules, people living in single-family homes are encouraged but not required to dispose of food waste and compostable paper products in compost bins. 
 
 Apartment buildings must have compost bins available, but residents of apartment buildings aren’t required to use them. 
 
 And businesses aren’t subject to any composting requirements. 
 
 Under the new rules, collectors can take a cursory look each time they dump trash into a garbage truck. 
 
 If they see compostable items make up 10 percent or more of the trash, they’ll enter the violation into a computer system their trucks already carry, and will leave a ticket on the garbage bin that says to expect a $1 fine on the next garbage bill. 
 
 Apartment buildings and businesses will be subject to the same 10 percent threshold but will get two warnings before they are fined. A third violation will result in a $50 fine. Dumpsters there will be checked by inspectors on a random basis. 
 
 Collectors will begin tagging garbage bins and Dumpsters with educational tickets starting Jan. 1 when they find violations. But fines won’t start until July 1. 
 
 SPU doesn’t expect to collect many fines, says Tim Croll, the agency’s solid-waste director. 
 
 The city outlawed recyclable items from the trash nine years ago, but SPU has collected less than $2,000 in fines since then, Croll says. 
 
 “The point isn’t to raise revenue,” he said. “We care more about reminding people to separate their materials.” 
 
 SPU asked the council to consider the new ordinance because the agency is falling short of its recycling and composting goals. 
 
 Seattle’s recycling rate for 2013 was 56 percent, a slight improvement over 2012 but not on pace to meet SPU’s goal of 60 percent for 2015. 
 
 “Our growth rate for recycling has stalled,” said Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, who sponsored the legislation. 
 
 “It’s surprising, but we still send 300,000 tons of garbage every year to a landfill in eastern Oregon. I think we can do a lot better than that,” Bagshaw said. 
 
 SPU estimates the new law will generate 38,000 tons in additional compost annually. 
 
 Collectors already check garbage bins at single-family homes for recyclable items. 
 
 When they find too many glass or plastic items, they leave the bins with a tag asking the resident to remove the items. 
 
 The council vote to pass the new composting measure was a unanimous 9-to-0. No public hearing was required. 
 
 Daniel Beekman: 206-464-2164 or dbeekman@seattletimes.com 
 
 Four weeks for 99 cents of unlimited digital access to The Seattle Times. Try it now!
– Seattle is nudging its residents toward more careful waste disposal: Put too much food waste in your regular trash, and you could owe the city $1, according to a new rule unanimously approved by the city council. If garbage collectors notice, at a glance, that more than 10% of a home's trash could have been composted, residents could get a ticket on their bins warning of a fine the next time their trash is collected. Collectors will record tickets on an existing computer in their vehicles, the Seattle Times reports. Apartment buildings and businesses will also have random dumpster checks; they'll receive two warnings, then a $50 fine on the third offense. Though the fines will become an option in July—after tickets begin in January—officials doubt they'll be fining many people. "The point isn't to raise revenue,” says the city's solid-waste director. “We care more about reminding people to separate their materials." Seattle is now the second US city to require composting, after San Francisco, the BBC reports. The Natural Resources Defense Council says up to 40% of US food goes to waste, while the EPA notes that just 5% of scraps go to compost. (One "zero-waste" restaurant is trying to do something about it.)