Government Senator Natalie Campbell-Rodriques is calling for stiffer fines for litterbugs.

To this end, she said it was time for the Solid Waste Management Act to be brought before a Joint Select Committee of the Parliament for review.

She made the call in the Senate on Friday as she closed the 2022/23 State of the Nation Debate.

“There needs to be greater fines for littering. There needs to be a system to penalise the owners of cement trucks that spill (their contents) along roadways and cause unnecessary and avoidable road damage which also leads to a short-changing of the purchasers of concrete,” Campbell-Rodriques remarked.

Despite the recent arrival of 50 garbage compacters, she stated that “An elephant in many rooms is the state of litter and debris across this country.

“Mr. President, the place dutty,” said Campbell-Rodriques while lamenting that “plastic bottles, garbage etc are around the place, in the open and around the corners and in the gullies”.

“There is no denying that more needs to be done to keep Jamaica clean and beautiful,” she added.

The government senator highlighted that with the recent arrival of 50 new garbage trucks, there are now roughly 110 garbage trucks in the system with another 50 on order for delivery in the near future.

“The ability to in a timely manner collect garbage across the island will help to alleviate the problems we now face. Additionally, we know that as a people our garbage is more and more complex than it was say 20 years ago but our garbage disposal systems have not been upgraded enough to match the complexity. That is the reason that two new waste disposal sites are being built,” said Campbell-Rodriques.

Continuing, she said: “Here me clearly, new dumps are not being built, instead, modern sanitary landfills are what are being constructed. In the near future there will no longer be uncontrollable fires at Riverton dump”.

According to the lawmaker, the Riverton dump has served us well but also has caused much pain.

She urged that until the new facilities are up and running, and until the sector is privatised as stated by the Prime Minister, “us as a people need to take responsibility for keeping our immediate and wider surroundings cleaner”.

“Let us commit to not tossing trash through our vehicle windows or on the streets when we walk. Businesses need to pay to discard rubbish properly. Families living near drains and gullies need to not dump the garbage from their backyards into these facilities. The government has a responsibility to ensure the country is kept clean as do every citizen to contribute to that cleanliness”.