Litterers to face 1-3 years imprisonment, doubled fines

Starting on October 1, both regular and construction litterers will face a penalty of one-to-three years imprisonment.

By SHARON UDASIN
trash collection 521 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
trash collection 521
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
The Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee approved, in second and third readings on Thursday, amendments to the Cleaning Maintenance Law, which will toughen punishment for littering, a spokesman for the committee announced that morning.
Starting on October 1, both regular and construction litterers will face a penalty of one-to-three years imprisonment.
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Until now, litterers faced a maximum prison sentence of one year.
Also, the court will impound and forfeit, to the Environmental Protection Ministry, garbage disposal trucks used in the commission of the same offense twice within five years.
“The law makes clear that nature and open spaces are not garbage cans and will not replace the necessary treatment of waste,” said Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan in a statement.
“The intolerable ease with which criminals dispose of construction debris where it pleases them dictates the imposition of harsher measures.”
Each year, 7.5 million tons of construction waste are deposited across the country; only 2.5 million tons were dumped in a lawful waste-disposal facility in 2008, according to the statement.