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It's the law in D.C. - recycle or face a fine from the Department of Public Works. But is enforcement of the law going too far?

they've admitted to rummaging through the trash to find violators of this law

Senior Citizen gets $100 fine for putting a newspaper in a public trash can. Sanitation cop Kathy Castro wrote Gluckin the summons for putting "improper refuse" in a city litter basket.

A city program launched in April has code enforcement officers writing thousands of citations — ranging from $25 to $1,000 — for infractions, including illegal dumping and improper storage of trash in open containers or paper shopping bags.

In Cleveland, you will be issued a recycle bin with an RFID chip and barcode. If your bin is not scanned for a few weeks then a trash inspector will come and sift through your garbage can. If the can has too much recyclable material then armed men will knock on your door and demand a $100 fee. And if you don't pay their extortion then they will kidnap you and lock you in a cage.

Darbe Pitofsky, 83, said she was on her way for a cup of coffee around 6:30 a.m. on June 25 when she threw a brown bag filled with old papers in a city litter basket... She said a sanitation worker quickly jumped out of his vehicle and demanded her information to write a summons... She said the worker demanded a form of identification and threatened to “put her away” if she didn’t comply.

A woman put an unwanted air conditioner out on the curb. A man asked her if he could take it. She said ok, and the man put it in his car. For this egregious crime, the man and woman were fined $2000 each and the man had his car impounded. Oh, and ignorance of this law is no excuse, citizen.

Jones is one of the owners of Buckingham Slate, a Virginia business a little over an hour's drive west of Richmond. The company is distinguished by the quality of the highly valued Arvonia slate it produces. And by the fact that its roots trace back almost to the Civil War. And by the fact that federal regulators smacked it with a $4,000 fine.
Over a trash can.

This guy was charged and sentenced more harshly than others, because he refused to pay the fine. He and others left containers of water for immigrants in the Arizona desert. The "littering" was on public property and wasn't trash when he left them there.