The U.S. city of Seattle is introducing a system to fine people who waste food. The city, in the USA's northwest, will begin issuing warnings on January the 1st and then start fining people six months later on July the 1st. People will get a $1 fine if more than 10 per cent of their garbage is food. Businesses will get a $50 fine. City officials want to reduce the amount of food that people and businesses waste. Americans waste around 40 per cent of the food they buy. The city hopes its new fines will bring this figure down. Seattle aims to increase the amount of waste it recycles from the current level of 56 per cent to 60 per cent. It has also become the second U.S. city to make composting compulsory.

The Seattle Public Utilities department said the new garbage disposal system should make people more aware that recycling is important. City official Tim Croll told the 'Seattle Times' newspaper that the programme would not make any money. He said: "The point isn't to raise revenue. We care more about reminding people to separate their materials." He added that he thinks the fines system will be a success and said he didn't expect to collect a lot of money in fines. It will be up to garbage collectors to decide if a house or business gets a fine. The collectors will look inside garbage bins to see how much food waste they contain. They can then add $1 or $50 to the next garbage bill.