Judge throws out Seattle compost rule as unconstitutional

SEATTLE — An environmental effort in Seattle to stop residents from tossing food scraps and other compost into the trash was ruled unconstitutional on Wednesday by a judge who said trash collectors poking through people’s garbage violates privacy rights.

King County Superior Court Judge Beth M. Andrus voided enforcement of the city ordinance in a written ruling, but she did not invalidate the ban on throwing away compost.

The now-defunct rule went into effect early last year, and it required trash collectors to tag garbage cans that contain more than 10 percent compostable material with education information.

A group of homeowners sued the city over the ordinance, and lawyers representing them said it made garbage collectors snoop through trash like police detectives.

Andrus wrote that trash collectors’ search of garbage is a disturbance of people’s private affairs.

Ethan Blevins, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which argued against the city in the previous hearing, said in a statement Wednesday that the ruling “is a victory for common sense and constitutional rights.”