Sweden enforces new litter laws
Published: 10 Jul 11 09:05 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/34844/20110710/
New laws come into force in Sweden on Sunday in a bid to combat the growing litter problem across the country.
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The new law has been well received by the police and the general public, although there have been questions raised on why it is still okay to discard cigarette butts, a major form of irritation to many public park users in particular.
Until now police have not had the power to administer fines on the spot for minor litter offences. From today however, if you are caught by one of the patrols, punishment can, and will, according to the authorities, be immediate.
Environment minister Andreas Carlgren is confident that the new law will have a positive effect.
“I hope and believe that it will lead to a cleaner Sweden. The intention is not that people should end up paying masses of fines, but that they stop dropping their litter. All of us who have walked past green areas in the morning at a weekend before they have been cleaned know how bad it can look,” he said in a statement.
The government has not gone into great detail on what is seen as unacceptable and will result in on-the-spot fines, although those throwing away sweet wrappers, bus tickets, chewing gum and cigarette butts will escape the immediate penalty.
We also won’t be seeing specially assigned litter police hit squads patrolling all our parks anytime in the near future.
Jonny Petersson, police chief for South Stockholm said to DN, ”We won’t be going out looking for people dropping litter. It will be more like the situation with those caught speeding in their cars. If we are out on patrol and see someone dropping litter, we can can fine them.”
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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I have yet to see any policemen or police ladies walking the streets.
And quite frankly, whenever i do see police it's in a police van with 4 or 5 officers (safety in numbers) even from the smallest of call outs.
If the police have to go round in such concentrated groups, rather than doubles or singular then it will only lead to more delays and lack of order.
" What a load of rubbish" !
Håll Sverige Rent
Then there is the sort of scouts movement Mulle, where you learn how act in the forest and not to throw things or destroy nature.
Don't know about the Toronto area, but in my experience the towns and villages out west look really clean to me; Chilliwack, Penticton, Osoyoos, High River, Lethbridge, Vulcan etc., all really nice places to live or visit. Much cleaner than The Netherlands where there is lots of litter in the streets of most towns.
And another nice thing aboot Canada; people do say Hi/hello/goodmorning etc quite a bit more than the Swedes do. But don't get me wrong; Sweden still remains my third favorite country, right after 1Canada and the 2USA.....
The cigarette butts are an absolute disgrace!
At least with the bottles & cans there is some poor begger that will collect them.
You obviously have absolutely NO idea about Sweden. If you did you would know that all drinks bottles and cans carry a returnable deposit of 1kr and as you pay per kilo for household waste collected, most people DO use the recycling facilities provided by the local Kommun for plastic, metal and paper.
I agree, the greater Toronto area is disgusting. I lived there for a year. No wonder the spread of cocroaches is so prevalent. Bút ouside of the big urban areas, the country is pretty well maintained, as long as you don't need to use a public toilet. Then Sweden wins hands down. They are very clean here.
But the gum and especially cigarette butts are disgraceful. Better yet, lets fine heavily those people that hork and spit their disgusting mucus on the sidewalks. YUCK! I have even seen women (can't call them ladies) do that in Sweden. Now THAST is just plain gross.
I do agree with you.
I'll third that!
there is no need to add more stuff to deal with such issue, i think people would gradually decrease the chance to drop litters.
Yes but for those who DON'T, for those who necessitated this new law because they litter, one thing the litterbugs could do instead of littering is recycling their cans and bottles. That way there wouldn't be litter anymore.
In America there was an old T.V. ad showing an Indian crying because of all the litter.