Be On Alert: The Green Police Could Be Here Soon [VIDEO]

Hat Tip to Jim Geraghty from National Review for remembering this Super Bowl ad from years ago featuring vocals recut by Robin Zander of Cheap Trick:

The Green Police might not be living inside your head for long. In Seattle they're all too real:

In Seattle, wasting food will now earn you a scarlet letter — well, a scarlet tag, to be more accurate. The bright red tag, posted on a garbage bin, tells everyone who sees it that you've violated a new city law that makes it illegal to put food into trash cans. "I'm sure neighbors are going to see these on their other neighbors' cans," says Rodney Watkins, a lead driver for Recology CleanScapes, a waste contractor for the city. He's on the front lines of enforcing these rules.

Yes, just like in the commercial, the city of Seattle now is employing workers to comb through trash to determine if you are throwing away the right stuff.

As Watkins made the rounds in Maple Leaf, a residential neighborhood of Seattle, earlier this month, he appeared disheartened to find an entire red velvet cake in someone's trash bin. Any household with more than 10 percent food in its garbage earns a bright red tag notifying it of the infraction.

Violations will cost single households a $1 fine per violation, at least for now. It seems inevitable the fine will increase in the futurue. Apartments, condos and commercial buildings could be fined $50 for throwing food away and committing a "compost infraction."

This actually is not all that new. Back in 2010, the city of Cleveland was on the cutting edge of monitoring what residents throw into the garbage:

It would be a stretch to say that Big Brother will hang out in Clevelanders' trash cans, but the city plans to sort through curbside trash to make sure residents are recycling -- and fine them $100 if they don't.

It's all pretty high tech. The city of Cleveland issued new trash and recycling carts embedded with radio frequency identification chips. The chips allow workers to monitor how often residents roll carts to the curb for collection. Now, if the data show that you haven't rolled a recyclable cart to the curb for a couple of weeks, you an expect a visit from a trash supervisor who will inspect your garbage.

The future is here. And it involves taxpayer-funded workers combing through your trash to see what you've been throwing out. Then fining you if you are not in compliance.