Stiffer penalties for improper waste disposal

The Government will be proceeding with plans to introduce legislation to impose stiffer penalties for improper waste disposal.

Legislation is to be passed to increase the fines for illegal and improper disposal of municipal waste, and a bill will be tabled requiring citizens to separate their garbage.

Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie said that prior to the introduction of the legislation, an islandwide public education campaign will be undertaken to sensitise citizens on the details of the laws.

“When the new legislation comes, the country will be aware, because we are going to be taking the programme right across the country into various community forums saying, ‘these are the things that will happen’, so that the country is in a position to digest [them],” he said.

McKenzie was addressing a meeting of the National Solid Waste Management Authority’s board of directors on Friday at the ministry’s offices in Kingston.

He said the public education campaign roll-out is intended to get citizens’ buy-in to address the perennial problem of public littering.

“That is why we have made no announcements yet, because we have planned a series on how the implementation is going to be done. We are [allowing some time] to sensitise the country,” the minister explained.

McKenzie said behaviour change on the part of citizens is the only way to achieve sustainable results.

“The object of what exists is there has to be a balance. I still maintain that if we gave every community in Jamaica a garbage truck, [and] the minds and the consciousness of the people don’t change, then it will make no difference,” he said.

– JIS