Mass. City Catches Trash Cheats With the Power of Misspelling

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.

Hope its fake.

[A. B3ttik]

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.

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[account_deleted]

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Would you prefer stamps?

[tepples]

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.

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[jipn4]

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.

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[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

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, peo

The irony is painful

[professorflipwig]

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...

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[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

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 bag

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[professorflipwig]

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

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[account_deleted]

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A likely story...

[iYk6]

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!"

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[BLT2112]

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

Why do they need specific bags?

[JoshuaZ]

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.

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[Lando242]

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 b