Friday, 22 August 2008
| 12ºC – Light Rain
| Telephone: 02 9777 1000
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A lot of people litter and don’t even think they’re doing it. The most common type of litter in Australia is discarded cigarette butts – these take up to 5 years to break down. That’s 5 years on the footpath! Dropping chocolate wrappers, putting advertising material under people’s windscreen wipers, abandoning bottles and letting your ATM receipt drift are all examples of littering. It doesn’t take too much imagination to guess where all this trash ends up; in Willoughby’s five water catchment areas. Don’t let that happen!
Fines for littering include:
- $60 for small items such as bottle tops and stubbed out cigarettes.
- $200 for general littering – lit cigarette butts or any item thrown from a vehicle.
- $375 for dangerous littering, such as smashing bottles or discarding a lit cigarette during a total fire ban.
- $750 for dumping items such as bags of rubbish, household appliance or furniture.
Litter is a problem for all Councils, but Willoughby is committed to providing a clean city for its residents and takes littering very seriously. For the years 2002 to 2006 Willoughby’s Compliance Unit issued more fines than any other council. Please care for the environment by putting your rubbish in the bin, and reporting those who don’t.
For more information on littering in New South Wales, please visit the Department of Environment and Conservation.