Anything Goes in Amsterdam, but You’d Better Not Miss Garbage Day : Ecology: If inhabitants of Europe’s most easygoing capital place their rubbish on the street at the wrong time, or in the wrong place, they face fines of up to $100 a bag.

One morning last March, Paula W. mistakenly put her family’s rubbish at the street 30 minutes after the garbage truck had passed.

Three months later, her husband, Chris, was summoned before an Amsterdam council tribunal to defend her and escape a fine.

The inhabitants of Europe’s most easy-going capital can buy soft drugs or visit prostitutes without fear of prosecution. But if they place their rubbish on the street at the wrong time, or in the wrong place, they face fines of up to $100 a bag.

“It’s perfectly logical,” said Roeland Lagendijk, head of waste collection in south Amsterdam and an architect of the tough new policy. “You do a lot more harm polluting with your rubbish than you do visiting a prostitute or smoking drugs.”

Household rubbish is an increasing problem throughout the developed world, where the volume of garbage has risen roughly in line with the wealth of some countries since the turn of the century.

Authorities worldwide are experimenting with ways of reducing waste. German residents sort theirs into different bags to recycle as much as possible.

In some parts of the Netherlands, paving stones are marked with the words “Rubbish Bags” showing where they may be placed. Place them too far away and face a fine.

A force of 27 specially trained garbage police combs the streets of the Dutch capital to seek out and prosecute offenders, from toxic waste polluters to defiant dog owners.

After Denmark and Luxembourg, the Dutch throw away the most municipal waste per person in the European Community, according to EC data.

The Dutch are already leaders in waste recycling, but authorities want to force people to be more aware of their daily waste and more conscientious in its disposal.

After years of public information campaigns, local councils are starting to imitate authorities in Singapore and Switzerland by extending the law to crush the costly garbage mountain.

“Amsterdam is a dirty city,” Lagendijk said. “Our culture tolerates rubbish on the street. People think it’s not their problem once it’s out. Sometimes the only way to convince people is through their purse.”

The W. family, who are on a temporary assignment for a multinational company, live in one of Amsterdam’s richest and most carefully preserved residential areas. Their offense was exposed by an unusual method.

A special force of rubbish-collecting detectives rifled through the family’s garbage under free-ranging “Exceptional Detection Rights” stipulated in a municipal bylaw. The sleuths tracked down the W.s through an envelope tossed into their offending bag of trash.

If they are judged to be among the 7,000 households in their area to have committed a garbage offense, their name will appear in a database and they will automatically be charged the extra collection cost of any future transgression.

“First, we had an orange warning card,” said Paula, who asked not to be further identified. “Then came the summons. I was livid. It seemed an intrusion into our privacy, plus we made a genuine mistake, and the council treated us like deliberate polluters.”

The summons itself is in ominous legal language. “You may surround yourself with witnesses and experts,” it informs recipients. “You are entitled during the hearing to be represented by a . . . lawyer or solicitor.”

Lagendijk said he expected the big-stick tactic to curb repeat offenses from a rate of 10% now to 1%.

“Ignorance is no proof of innocence,” he added.

The hard-line tactic is not unique. Swiss authorities, for example, have started an experimental system obliging people to use special rubbish bags priced to cover collection costs.

The bigger the bag, the more it costs. Any rubbish found in unapproved containers is carted off to rubbish police, who are empowered to inspect it and fine offenders.

One Dutch council experimenting with a similar scheme said recently that its rubbish volume had fallen by 75%.

But it also identified a new phenomenon, which it called “garbage tourism.” Rubbish collected in neighboring districts surged to unprecedented levels over the period.

The W. family were the first in their area to appeal on the grounds that they broke the rules by accident. They must wait six weeks for the council to reach a verdict on their case.

“I certainly wouldn’t do it again,” Paula said. “We didn’t do it deliberately in the first place. You’d think they’d have more important things to clear up. . . . My children can’t even play in the park opposite because of the dog mess.”

Despite the crackdown, dog dirt is still one of Amsterdam’s chief urban hazards.