NEA saw a 12 per cent increase in the number of complaints on high-rise littering from January to June 2008 as compared to the same time period last year.
Last year, only eight high-rise litterbugs were caught and fined.
The common items are cigarette butts, tissue paper and fruit seeds. More extreme litter would be sanitary pads, wound dressings and bags of urine or faeces.
When faced with stubborn residents, the next step that Town Councils may take is to organise their officers as well as NEA officers wait at the opposite block to catch the offender red-handed.
Offenders who throw cigarette butts and sweet wrappers are fined S$200.
Repeat offenders and those who throw more serious litter like plastic bags and food wrappers are sent to court and may be sentenced to a corrective work order.
It was reported that a 32-year-old resident has been bearing with her neighbour’s littering of used sanitary pads for five years now. After multiple complains to her Town Council and NEA, a camera was installed to catch the culprit. Note : It's important the picture has to be clear to nail the culprit.
Lets hope the various Town Councils, NEA are seriously working to catch litter bugs, enforcing heavy fines and court actions instead of using the soft approach like " education ". Sometimes it won't work on stubborn people.
