Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mass. City Catches Trash Cheats With the Power of Misspelling

Posted by samzenpus on from the that's-our-story-and-we're-sticking-to-it. dept.

Managers with Gloucester's Public Works Departmint are trying to catch counterfiters by deliberately mispelling the word "official" with "offcial". Recycling cordinator Kathy Middleton says the intentional misspelling is suposed to make it easier to catch people who try to counterfeit bags. It's good to know that the spelling mistakes were intentinal and not just somebody hurring through thier work.

14 comments

  1. Hope its fake. by A.+B3ttik · · Score: 1

    I really hope this isn't real, because the article reeks of corruption.

    Seriously, being _forced_ to spend $2/trashbag just to throw shit away in? It's obvious that the city is just trying to get money... for $2 you can get like 100 GLAD trashbags.

    1. Re:Hope its fake. by MoonBuggy · · Score: 3, Informative

      You've missed the point. Obviously the cost of the bag is negligible, but the remainder of the $2 pays for the actual disposal of the contents of that bag. Rather than having an amount of your taxes pay for waste services, you effectively pay by the quantity of waste you throw out.

    2. Re:Hope its fake. by jipn4 · · Score: 1

      Seriously, being _forced_ to spend $2/trashbag just to throw shit away in?

      Are you really so dense that you don't really how costly getting rid of trash is?

      If you don't want to pay the $2, keep the trash or find someone else to haul it away. Then you'll see that $2/bag is a good deal.

    3. Re:Hope its fake. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Let's see. 4 bags a week = $8 per week = $416 per year.

      Paying your own for trash pickup out in the country: $70/quarter = $280, and that's with a more expensive service.

      Paying as part of a large group (a country city) who contracts out the whole city (socialism, I admit): $38/quarter = $152/year.

      Ya, corruption it is. And/or massive environmental regulations. Which, he cynically said, amounts to much the same thing in the end.

      So if you are paying such a ridiculous cost per bag , look in the mirror, people.

      By the way, can you contract your own pickup there? Or is the city using armed men to keep out the competition, something most who love this plan would screech about if it were a private company trying to enforce it's will that way.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  2. The irony is painful by professorflipwig · · Score: 1

    They misspell a word in a very subtle way in order to catch people, and then one of the most popular sites on the Internet (among geeks, at least) has a story telling about it...

    --
    Hostes futuri sint socii.
    1. Re:The irony is painful by Vlad_the_Inhaler · · Score: 1

      Stupid idea. I live in Germany and get large amounts of spam (Eng + Germ) where the spelling and grammar are disaster zones. Some of that will be to avoid spam filters, but mostly it is because the spammers simply do not know the language they are spamming in. Seriously, a mail from a bank using what is probably Russian grammar and misusing words? No way could it be real.

      Now some city starts distributing deliberate mistakes. I'd simply assume they were fake if I lived there. What is with the older bags which have not been used yet? Deliberate misspellings are just a bad idea.

      btw, is this story real or is someone trying to wind people up?

      --
      Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
    2. Re:The irony is painful by MoonBuggy · · Score: 1

      I'm thinking it's probably a double bluff.

      The whole point of a subtle misspelling is, as you said, in order that the counterfeiters won't notice and will continue to print without the mistake, setting them apart. Obviously as soon as they see the news story they start to print the misspelled ones instead. There's also the fact that there will still be many many (legitimate) correctly spelled bags in circulation at the same time - all the people who have older bags left over could be targeted as fraudsters.

      If, on the other hand, the story is fake and the city only ever produces correctly spelled bags, it's actually reasonably cunning. The counterfeiters see the story and quickly start producing misspelled bags, which then find their way in amongst the new (correctly spelled) bags. Since it was a bluff and all real bags, new and old, have the correct spelling, the fakes are much easier to find.

    3. Re:The irony is painful by professorflipwig · · Score: 2, Funny

      In the US, accidental misspellings are much less common because there are much fewer languages getting spoken in any given area.

      --
      Hostes futuri sint socii.
  3. A likely story... by iYk6 · · Score: 1

    I find it much more likely that somebody misspelled the word, and then duplicated it several times, and then, only retroactively tried to claim, "I meant to do that!"

    1. Re:A likely story... by BLT2112 · · Score: 1

      After actually reading the article, I'd have to agree. Especially since the next batch will be spelled correctly...

  4. Would you prefer stamps? by tepples · · Score: 1

    for $2 you can get like 100 GLAD trashbags.

    And then you'd still have to pay $1.98 for the stamp that you affix to the GLAD trashbag so that the garbage collector will take the trash to the landfill for you.

  5. Why do they need specific bags? by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

    I'm more curious as to why people need to use the bags sold by the city? There's no obvious reason and the fact that the city is selling them at $2 a bag suggests that this simply is so the city can make more money.

    1. Re:Why do they need specific bags? by Lando242 · · Score: 1

      We have a similar deal here where I live. Basically you are not paying for the bag, you are paying for them to haul whats in the bag away. Instead of paying a fixed amount to haul the garbage out of a city supplied can once a week (weather theres garbage in the can or not), you fill X number of bags at $2 a bag and they haul that off once a week if needed. Its a great way to save money if you only throw out 4 bags a month, which is about how many you could fit inside the city supplied can around here (the bags here are much larger then a standard kitchen bag). It also encourages people to recycle more so less reusable stuff goes to the landfill. Now if you are a pig or have a large family and are throwing out 2 city cans worth of garbage a week its very much not a good deal, you end up paying a shitload more to dump your waste then if you paid a flat rate per week/month.