Litter is a big problem in my city

But the municipality came up with a solution: ask the national government to allow local governments to raise the fine for littering from €160 to €1000. Small detail: the past year only 12 littering tickets where handed out because enforcement officers focus most of their time on illegal parking.

Ok... Before asking for federal law changes, maybe you could start enforcing the currently available laws. That already helped quite a bit in other cities and if you're not going to give people the higher fines either, their effect will probably be very limited. 🙄

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OogieBoogie · F

From what youve explained to people below, it seems its hard to enforce the fines coz you have to either catch the people doing it......or prove they did it .
Both seem difficult .

I dont think fines are going to fix it .

Around here, twice a year the council has two special rubbish collection days: its when people can throw out larger items like matresses, bikes, shelves, tvs, old lawn mowers etc .

And it seems to work.
(And this is a low income neighbourhood).

NerdyPotato · M

@OogieBoogie that would be much more effective indeed. Getting rid of those things is made a real hassle and that's why people don't bother. And I agree, proving it is difficult. With garbage there may be a forgotten address in there, but a wasmachine? I don't think they'll get permission to query all (web)shops to see if anyone in the neighborhood recently bought a replacement and I don't see how else you could track down the owner if it isn't caught on camera.

NerdyPotato · M

@OogieBoogie I tried to get rid of my bed last year the official way. So I made an appointment to have it picked up right outside my door and paid €30 euros. Then I got a call that I couldn't put it there and had to carry several 70kg packages 100 meters away, properly packaged, on Sunday evening. Having a disability and only having help on the Wednesday before was no excuse. If I put it out any earlier or closer to home, I'd be fined.

"Funny" thing: there are heavy, unpacked things right next to my door literally every week and they disappear too, and if you manage not to get caught, it's free that way. From that moment I fully understood why people put it there whenever convenient.

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