Call for publishing names of litterbugs

WESTERN BUREAU:

WHILE THE St James Municipal Corporation [StJMC] continues to grapple with illicit garbage disposal across the parish, Dwight Crawford, councillor for the Spring Garden Division, wants authorities to publish the full identities of persons who are caught illegally disposing of their waste.

Crawford, who has previously called for harsh penalties for litterbugs, made the suggestion during Thursday’s monthly meeting of the StJMC, where the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) reported that a perpetrator had recently been caught dumping garbage in the Porto Bello community.

“The public needs to see the face of the nasty person that has been making their lives difficult. When you have areas like Bogue Village, where persons are conducting commercial activities for their businesses, and having fowl coops in residential areas, that tells you there is a major breakdown in the way people’s minds work,” said Crawford.

“We need to blatantly publish all the information about this person, their face and all their information, so that John Public can see; and it would also help deter others from allowing themselves to be embarrassed in public,” Crawford added.

In response, Dramaine Jones, the regional operations manager for the NSWMA’s Western Parks and Markets Waste Management Limited, said that his organisation is currently examining the legality of such a suggestion before they attempt to put it into action.

HAVE TO BE CAREFUL

“We are looking at whether that idea is legal or not in terms of exposing some of these persons, because we have to be careful. I should have a response before the next meeting in terms of what can be done, because I know that previously, something was done and it presented some amount of issue,” said Jones.

“So we just want to make sure we are on the legal side of things before we commence with that,” Jones told the meeting, while noting that emphasis continues to be placed on prosecuting litterbugs.

The call to severely punish litterbugs had previously been made during last December’s sitting of the StJMC, where Crawford had reported that business operators in St James have been involved in dumping refuse of varying kinds across the parish.

The issue was raised again this year during March’s sitting of the StJMC, where reports were raised that garbage was being dumped in places that had been cleaned during the Christmas period. It was also reported at that time that rats, which have been a long-standing issue in Montego Bay due to improper food disposal, were seen in the vicinity of a popular fast-food outlet in the western city.

St James has had a vexing history of solid waste management, despite the various fines which can be imposed on persons who are found guilty of littering. These fines range from $2,000 for littering in any public space to $5,000 for littering on any premises owned by another person without the owner’s permission.

In January 2020, the then Mayor of Montego Bay, Homer Davis, urged motorists to carry bags to store their waste for disposal in proper garbage receptacles, instead of throwing garbage from their vehicles on to the roadway. The Tourism Enhancement Fund had previously tried to breathe life into that idea in 2011, with 5,000 litter bags being distributed to ground transport operators in the tourism sector and taxi operators in Montego Bay as part of a local anti-litter campaign.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com