The City of Burnaby is looking into stiffer penalties for illegal dumping. Yahoo, we say, yahoo.
There seems to be more and more old mattresses, recliners, TVs and broken appliances ending up near ravines, deadends and, yes, even public parks.
There will always be some people who are so lazy they will just dump stuff instead of taking the time to take it to the proper recycling place or having the city come pick it up. There are also people from other municipalities who, for whatever reasons, decide it’s safer to dump it into a neighbouring municipality than call up their own city hall and arrange a pickup. And then there are the people who can’t be bothered to take paints, oil or leaky batteries to the proper recycling depots and just throw them into some nearby bushes.
It’s despicable behaviour. No doubt about it.
So we applaud any and all efforts by the city to crack down on the dumping.
The City of Surrey has a maximum fine of $10,000 – Burnaby’s is $200. Surrey also has camera surveillance and a smartphone app that allows the public to easily report illegal dumping in parks or on city property.
Burnaby, although it likes calling itself a green city, is trailing behind on this issue. And that’s not good enough.
Dumped stuff can remain for weeks in spots, and it doesn’t seem to be a high priority. And, when junk isn’t picked up right away, the tendency is for other dumpers to put their junk in the same spot.
While the city’s bulky items pick up service has increased since 2015, we still see the same plague of old mattresses and TVs littering our city.
Let’s encourage our municipal leaders to match other cities in their efforts to deliver a cleaner environment. Hike the fines, step up enforcement and use new technology to both track the dumpers and enable citizens to report the culprits.
