Tougher Penalties Needed to Deter Littering

One of the trucks filled with garbage from the Labour Day Clean up in the North.
One of the trucks filled with garbage from the Labour Day Clean up in the North.

LITTLE BAY – Residents are calling for tougher penalties for people found littering after truck loads of garbage were hauled to the dump on Monday, May 4, 2015 after a campaign to clean up along the main road in the north of the island.

Volunteers including the Hon. Premier Donaldson Romeo and radio personality Basil Chambers helped with the cleaning.

On Tuesday morning during the Breakfast Show with Basil, residents called in with suggestions that the government should implement tougher measures to catch and punish people caught dumping garbage out there car windows or in areas which are not dump site.

Some callers suggested fines and others said the vehicles should be confiscated if the drivers are found dumping garbage anywhere but at the legal dump.

Austin Howe, Head of Diamond Services, which handles garbage collection called for the police to be more vigilant. He noted that his company has found 75 spots on island where garbage is dumped illegally. More than 30 of them are in the area between the hospital and the landfill site at Jack Boy Hill.

Howe said during the radio interview that people should desist from dumping dead animals in the garbage, often placing them in other people’s bins so they are unable to know who the culprit was. “There needs to be the political will on this issue of penalities.”

The clean up campaign was organised by Arthur “Brooks” Meade and endorsed by Hon Member of the Legislature Dr Ingrid Buffonge.

Volunteers cleaned along the roadside from the John Osborne Airport to the Little Bay Sea Port and areas in between.

The organisers extend thanks to Diamond Services and other local truckers who donated their vehicles and time free of cost, and the businesses and individuals who provided food and refreshments for the volunteers.

Garbage is collected from 6:30am in the morning and residents are asked not to place it outside before that time to avoid animals turning over the bins. All garbage bags should be tied to avoid spillage and the bins should not be secured with rocks as they hurt the collectors.

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