Toothless in Tarheel Land: The Winston-Salem [N.C.] Journal wins today´s Inbox Overheated Headline Award. "Starting today, it is illegal not to recycle plastic bottles," the paper declares atop a story about a new law that prohibits the disposal of plastic bottles in North Carolina landfills.

 

There are couple odd things about this. First, the story notes that the law passed in 2005 but didn´t take effect until today. Period. No further explanation provided.

 

Four years from passage to implementation: I don´t know much about legislation, but isn´t that an awfully long gestation period?

 

Second, the law sounds soft:

 

"State officials say ordinary citizens need not worry about being penalized if they forget to salvage every last bottle. No one will be picking through trash cans or searching for recycling scofflaws. Any fines that would be assessed would likely come from state landfill inspectors if they spotted a trash hauler trying to dump large amounts of banned items. But even that is pretty unlikely. For now, the state is concentrating on making the public aware of the law and encouraging more communities to set up strong recycling programs."

 

So from this day forward it is indeed illegal not to recycle plastic bottles in North Carolina -- technically. But with a law as toothless as this, I think that may prove to be one exceedingly technical technicality.

 

Pete Fehrenbach is managing editor of Waste & Recycling News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.

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