Litterbugs Face Two-Thousand-Dollar Fines

Could a tour guide, alcalde or village council member soon ticket you for littering? Under updated regulations, the Department of the Environment is expanding the list of people authorized to enforce Belize’s litter laws. Violators could face fines of up to two thousand dollars, and officers would have twenty-one days after an offence to issue a ticket. But the department says enforcement is only one part of the solution. It is also launching a national campaign called “Our Belize, Our Responsibility, Bin It.” Here is Chief Environmental Officer Anthony Mai.

 

Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer, DOE

“Another section of the law that we are amending is the section that says if an authorized officer sees someone throwing litter on the ground the officer has forty-eight hours to issue the littering ticket. What we have seen is that people would hide forty-eight hours and legally after that time we would not be able to issue the ticket. We are pushing this back to twenty-one days so we have enough time to catch you and issue the ticket. Also, we are increasing the fines for littering. The person currently under the law would be charged a hundred dollars. We are taking that up a hundred percent. So you will be charged two hundred dollars. And then for companies, the current penalty is five hundred dollars, we are takin that up to two thousand dollars. We are also looking at the possibility of including within the sanctions, the law says that if you don’t pay the ticket after fifteen working days an additional fee is charged, the current law says ten dollars a day. This one says twenty to twenty-five dollars a day and if you don’t pay it within thirty days, you have to go to court. So, if they feel like they have a justification, they will be able to present that justification to the magistrate.”

 

Placencia Gets More Litter Enforcement Officers

 

Earlier this week the Department of Environment began expanding its list of people authorized to issue littering tickets. Minister of Sustainable Development Orlando Habet appointed nine people as authorized officers in Placencia. They include village council members and active members of the community.

 

Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer, DOE

“What we did recently, we reached out to the Placencia Village Council informing them of our desire to authorize persons to issue littering tickets in Placencia. This was a two-way flow of information. The request came as a result of a meeting we had with them. The Placencia Village Council presented us with nine names. Some of the names are members of the village council, and some are people who are active in the community. So, on Wednesday the Minister of Sustainable Development Orlando Habet issued these nine individuals with their confirmed letter authorizing them as persons who could issue littering tickets. Now this had to go through the full legal process in terms of authorizing these people. We had to go though the Attorney General Office. The names were gazzetted for two weeks and then the minister would have the letter to authorize them after it had been gazzetted.”

 

The public awareness campaign will also include the installment of trash bins in public transportation across the country as well as national anti-littering billboards.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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