Piper Street resident Martin King has had enough of “tossers”.
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The final straw came yesterday morning when he woke to find the gutter outside his home littered with rubbish, including bottles, cans, McDonald’s wrappers and cigarette packets.
“Someone had literally emptied the rubbish from their car into the gutter,” he said.
“They had probably stopped to pick someone up and decided to clean the car out.”
Mr King said it was time people took a stand and reported littering.
“We get the odd bottle thrown out the front, or put on the walls, but nothing like this great pile of rubbish in the gutter,” he said.
“We have a ‘Don’t be a tosser’ campaign and we ought to be looking at doing something about it.
“Nobody likes to have to clean up other people’s rubbish.
“If no-one makes a stand, nothing gets done.”
Mr King said he contacted the police and Bathurst mayor Gary Rush about the incident.
Cr Rush said the ‘Hey Tosser’ campaign was meant to draw attention to, educate and promote the need for everyone to be tidy.
“The campaign is designed to encourage people who choose to litter not to,” he said.
“All community members are dismayed when they see instances of littering.”
Cr Rush said while he didn’t think littering was a growing problem in the city, it was “constantly around”.
“The more we can do to educate people about littering, the more chance we have of lessening, or even eradicating, the problem.”
A NSW Police spokesperson said there were a range of fines for littering offences.
“Fines start at $80 for extinguishing a cigarette in a public place and people who are caught depositing litter from a vehicle face fines of $250,” the spokesperson said.
“If people can supply a vehicle’s registration number we can investigate.”
Someone who is seen littering from their vehicle can also be reported to the Environment Protection Agency, which can issue fines starting at $250.
The person doing the reporting must be 18 years of age or over and have actually seen the litter being thrown (or blown) from the vehicle, among other conditions.