Instant fines for littering New York

Press, 25 July 1984, Page 17

Instant fines for littering New York

Big Brother is watching New York’s litter bugs. ARTHUR SPIEGELMAN, NZPA-Reuter, reports.

Although many an immigrant may have dreamed that the streets of New York were paved with gold, real New Yorkers knew the dirty truth. The streets of New York from the Bronx to the Bowery were and are lined with litter — candy wrappers, yesterday’s newsS>rs, tomorrow’s unpaid , somebody’s half-eaten lunch, tossed out sofas, broken beds, shoes with dead soles and, of course, thousands of cigarette butts. For years, city officials have inveighed against the mess, issuing clarion calls for cleanliness and promoting catchy jingles like “Every Litter Bit Counts.” A talking trash can was once introduced that made warning noises as someone dropped a used tissue. But that didn’t work either. Noone listened. Now city officials have hit upon a new idea. A new squad of Sanitation Enforcement Agents is on the prowl, letting New Yorkers know that Big Brother is watching them and, if caught, they have to pay hefty fines. The fines range from $75 to $3OO. All a New Yorker has to do to earn a summons is to be observed

littering. “I found out the hard way,” said an accountant, George Davis, the other day. “I was standing waiting for a bus at Eighth Avenue and 41st Street, which is one of the dirtiest streetcorners in the city. A derelict was rummaging through a trash can. There was garbage everywhere. The bus came and I stubbed my cigarette out on the ground, the way I have thousands of times,” he recalled ruefully. Then he heard a voice say, “Step out of line, please.” He turned and saw one of 10 specially assigned Sanitation Department Enforcement Agents, dressed in a neat white and blue uniform. “It is illegal to litter in the city of New York, sir,” the agent said, writing out a $5O ticket “You must be kidding,” said Mr Davis, who suddenly realised the agent was not. The agent told a reporter that he only gives out tickets to people who litter in front of him. According to a Sanitation Department spokesman, the new anti-litter campaign is only an experiment. “We started it a month ago with 10 agents. We so far have given out 64 summonses. If it is a success, then we will make it permanent and have our entire force of 180 Sanitation Enforcement Agents give out summonses,” said the department spokesman, Martin McGinley.

Sanitation Enforcement agents usually check to see if sidewalks are kept clean by shopkeepers, and ticket people for large-scale illegal trash dumping. “Until we started this programme, the campaigns against litter have been wars of words. Now we are trying to hit people in their pocketbooks. The possibility of receiving that sort of fine will make people think twice,” Mr McGinley said. Mayor Edward Koch is fully backing the programme, which still has another month to run before the city decides whether to make it permanent. “The Mayor is not happy with anything you discard on the streets of New York, whether it be chicken bones or $lOO bills. He calls litterers ‘litter pigs’,” said Mr McGinley. The Mayor likes to point out as well that the New York programme is more lenient than one in Singapore where the fine for littering is $250 and a second offence can land the litterer in jail. The Sanitation Department says that every day some 100 tonnes of litter are dropped on the streets by New Yorkers. “That’s an awful lot of candy wrappers,” said Mr McGinley. Maybe New Yorkers need an ever-vigilant Big Brother to clean up their act. Or maybe they will watch and wait for the agent to pass, and then litter away as they have for generations.