Chicago To Shutdown Composting Business Because Regulations Don't Cover Worms (blockclubchicago.org)

schwit1 shared an article from Reason's "Volokh Conspiracy" blog: Nature's Little Recyclers is a father-son business that does composting on empty residential lots, transforming organic waste into nutrient-rich soil. Last year, the business's worms processed 10 tons of banana peels and cups from the Chicago Marathon that would otherwise have gone to a landfill. But Chicago officials are going to shut the business down -- and not because the city doesn't think composting is a good thing (the city's sustainability website directs people to Nature's Little Recyclers). Rather, the city's business and zoning regulations weren't designed to accommodate small and innovative operations like Nature's Little Recyclers.
"None of these operations met the criteria for garden composting or an on-site organic waste composting operation," said Anel Ruiz, spokesperson for the Department of Public Health, in a statement to Block Club Chicago, adding "Further, these sites are not properly zoned for commercial composting."

But another perspective was shared by lawyer Amy Hermalik, associate director of the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago. "The city will unofficially imply there's wiggle room, saying it only enforces certain ordinances against 'bad operators,' but that leaves businesses subject to shifting political winds or personal whims, Hermalik said. 'They [the city] have an incredible amount of power to do as they please.'"

Comments

Another example of zoning ruck amok

[JoshuaZ]

This is another example of how zoning and business regulations in the US have run amok where the default is that something can't happen. This is the same sort of trend that is making it so difficult to build even residential homes in the Bay Area and elsewhere. And this isn't a problem in many other parts of the world; look for example at how zoning in Japan functions based on nuisance level http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html. Not only does this sort of thing cause economic harm, not only does it unnecessarily restrict basic liberties, but it causes environmental damage by encouraging urban sprawl and interfering with businesses and ideas that are even slightly outside the ordinary in how they are trying to be helpful or reduce waste.

"Wiggle room"

[110010001000]

I get it.

In other words, you forgot the Payola

[SuperKendall]

"The city will unofficially imply there's wiggle room, saying it only enforces certain ordinances against 'bad operators,' but that leaves businesses subject to shifting political winds or personal whims,"

So the real story here is the busses missed the subtle hints as to who they needed to pay off to let the business keep working.

Why anyone would start a business in Chicago of all places is beyond me, unless you were sure of profitability after paying out the substantial graft required.

Chicago is incredibly corrupt

[Solandri]

A friend of mine ran a commercial building in Chicago. He was constantly getting fined for obscure and trivial building code violations, like a cracked window or burnt out light bulb (someone might trip and get hurt at night if they're walking around inside an unrented warehouse space where the lights aren't even turned on at night!). I happened to accompany him during one of the inspections, and it was obvious the inspector was expecting a bribe. He stated the problems he found and how much the fine would be, then he paused to give my friend a chance to respond. When my friend missed the unspoken message and asked how much time he would have to fix everything, the inspector didn't answer the question, reiterated the amount of the fine again, and paused. My friend's problem was that he was too principled to bribe anyone. It never even occurred to him that an inspector would expect a bribe.

That's probably what's going on here. The guy running this composting business either refused to or doesn't know he's supposed to bribe the city officials.

Re:Regulation

[squiggleslash]

Nah, this just sounds like the same stupid zoning shit you get everywhere in the US. Chicago is nominally a city, or is at least on the interior, so it's not immediately obvious that the same stuff applies to Anytown USA stuff, but it does.

Most countries do not zone in the same way as the US does where the precise use of a property is strictly controlled. Instead the cities regulate the effects of business, using noise ordinances, pollution/environmental laws, etc, to prevent a location from being a nuisance to its neighbors. So it's easy to run a grocery store or a pub or a restaurant in the middle of a mostly residential area, but if you want to put an automobile repair shop there, you're going to have to make it the world's quietest automobile repair shop or else face so many fines you'll be out of business within a month.

The US doesn't do this, and there's a reason for that: lobbying by car companies. People need to be able to reach the businesses that serve and employ them. By forcing people to live in large areas that contain no businesses, you're forcing them to make journeys that are usually too far to do by foot, and by creating a patchwork of "zones" with no center, you're making it impossible for public transit to profitably (or at least sustainably) provide those journeys.

That's what's going on here. The business hasn't been regulated out of existence, in fact REGULATION WOULD HAVE HELPED IT. Regulation would have meant that as long as it complied with reasonable noise and environmental rules (which by all accounts it would have done) it would have done fine. It's instead been ZONED out of existence, legally banned from operating where it is because the type of business its in is banned.

What's ironic is that Reason usually is one of the chief cheerleaders for this kind of shit. It'd be nice for them to recognize zoning is stupid and anti-freedom, but I suspect they'll be back to promoting free parking mandates and bans on high density mixed use development next week anyway.

Re:Regulation

[ShanghaiBill]

Nah, this just sounds like the same stupid zoning shit you get everywhere in the US.

Not everywhere. For instance, Houston has no zoning.

In Chicago?

[SuperKendall]

I'll take "Things That Didn't Happen" for $1000, Alex

I'll take the "things that happen daily - Double" for $2000, Alex.

Every city is incredibly corrupt

[rsilvergun]

You notice Chicago more because the mainstream media likes to cover it, that's all.

I'll give you the classic example I like to trout out from my little town. Down here there was a land owner who wanted some state trust land. Trust land, if you don't know, is when the state holds land in "trust" until a developer is ready to do something with it so they don't have to pay property tax in the meantime.

Anyway, this particular plot of land wasn't for sale, because it was full of an endangered species of goat. But that landowner wanted it. So what did he do? Bought a plot of land next to it, put up some rickety fences, put a bunch of sheep with syphilis on the land, waited for the sheep to jump said rickety fence and for the goats to do what goats do to sheep. The sheep had various immunities, the goats did not. Wasn't long and the goats were all dead. After that he got his land.

This is nothing new. Go drag your ass down to your local community college and pull up microfiche of the left wing rags in your local city and you'll find they're full of crap like this. Nobody cares and nobody does anything about it.

If you want crap like that to change you have to start voting and pay attention to who you vote for. And you have to vote in your primary. Otherwise the local businesses will just buy up the politicians. And local politicians are _cheap_.

Re:Composting vs Landfill

[Sarten-X]

...what real difference does it make if they were placed in a landfill?

Unfortunately, the low-oxygen conditions inside landfills makes for a very poor environment for the aerobic bacteria that eat organic material like paper and plant waste. Without those bacteria and a good supply of fresh air, that waste won't decompose in a landfill much better than plastic.

That's one reason why worms are so important in composting. Their tunnels carry enough oxygen to keep the bacteria alive, reducing the need to constantly turn the soil.

Re:Wrong Approach

[arglebargle_xiv]

It's based on worms, if course there's going to be wiggle room.