"garbage" news and stories

San Francisco officials say the city's fast-food litter has gotten out of control. Thousands of impromptu picnics on bus benches, in public parks, and on city sidewalks have left the landscape riddled with abandoned wrappers, napkins and bags.

The question is, who should pay to clean it all up? San Francisco politicians want to add a fee at the restaurant register to cover the costs of fast-food trash removal. It's a potentially lucrative proposal: A similar tax on cigarettes of 20 cents a pack was added to offset the cost of cleaning up cigarette litter, and that fee will generate about $2.5 million during the fiscal year -- not exactly chump change.

"Fast-food wrappers are really the next biggest identifiable source [of litter]," Department of Public Works Director Ed Reiskin told the Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee in a report published in the San Francisco Examiner. The proposal will be considered in the next few months, officials say.

A Rochester staple, the garbage plate is a whopping stack of (get ready): two hamburger patties and two sides (home fries, macaroni salad, or beans), mixed with ketchup and hot sauce, with a roll on the side for good measure. It originated at Nick Tahou Hots' restaurant over 50 years ago - y'know, before we were worried about stuff like obesity and heart attacks. College kids used to come in and ask for a dish with "all the garbage" on it.

But - gasp - a restaurant in Philly has added the Plate to its menu, with a few changes: fries and mustard pan sauce replace the traditional home fries and hot sauce. Could it be as bad - er, good - as the original?