JUST over a week into the implementation of a ticketing system for littering offences, the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) says it has issued 64 tickets and collected $12,000 in fines.

“Thirty-six tickets have been issued for urinating in public and 28 for littering,” Andre Wiltshire, enforcement and compliance director at NSWMA, told the Observer yesterday.

Wiltshire added that six offenders have so far paid the $2,000 fine that the offences attract.

He said that NSWMA started issuing tickets in a pilot project in Kingston and Montego Bay on May 1 and extended to Portmore on May 7.

“We have not yet issued any tickets in Portmore, but there have been many warnings, “Wiltshire said, adding that members of the constabulary and enforcement officers of the NSWMA are issuing the litter tickets.

The Observer last November reported on the NSWMA’s intention to adopt a ticketing system similar to that used for traffic offences effective February this year.

That start-up date was, however, postponed until May.

According to the NSWMA, the pilot project in Kingston, Montego Bay and Portmore will end July 1 when littering anywhere in the island could attract a ticket.

The minimum fine, the NSWMA said, is $2,000 and ticketable offences include the discarding of cigarette butts on roadways.