Mel­lisa SookooS­t­u­dent, Hugh Wood­ing Law School

This ar­ti­cle looks at the laws in place to con­trol pol­lu­tion caused by lit­ter­ing in T&T.

The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Act Chap 35:05 (EMA) aims to pro­tect the en­vi­ron­ment and reg­u­late its use, con­ser­va­tion and man­age­ment. The fo­cus of this law is to safe­guard the well-be­ing of nat­ur­al re­sources for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

Sec­tion 2 of the EMA Act de­fines pol­lu­tion as any dis­tur­bance in the con­di­tions of the nat­ur­al en­vi­ron­ment like­ly to be harm­ful to hu­mans and the en­vi­ron­ment.

These dis­tur­bances can be caused by:

�2 The re­lease of any type of sub­stances

�2 Dis­tur­bances in the form of of­fen­sive odours, noise, en­er­gy, ra­di­a­tion and vi­bra­tion.

It in­cludes any dis­tur­bances like­ly to af­fect the en­vi­ron­ment at large. One of the ma­jor forms of pol­lu­tion is lit­ter­ing.

Sec­tion 2 of the Lit­ter Act Chap 30:05 (the Act) de­fines lit­ter as any type of ma­te­r­i­al, ei­ther sol­id or liq­uid not on­ly found in bot­tles, cans, pack­ag­ing, foods, an­i­mals and hu­man waste, but al­so ma­te­ri­als which the Min­is­ter of Health may spec­i­fy as be­ing harm­ful. Lit­ter­ing is bro­ken down in­to the lit­ter­ing of pub­lic and pri­vate places.

Sec­tion 3 of the Act re­lates to lit­ter­ing in pub­lic places. A per­son guilty of an of­fence is li­able to a fine of $4,000 or im­pris­on­ment for six months, where­as a busi­ness or cor­po­ra­tion is li­able to a fine of $8,000.

Un­der sec­tion 4 of the Act a per­son who lit­ters on an­oth­er's premis­es with­out per­mis­sion is li­able to a fine of f$4,000 or im­pris­on­ment for six months.

Where a per­son is con­vict­ed a sec­ond time he or she is li­able to a dou­bling of the max­i­mum fine im­posed for that of­fence. A dai­ly penal­ty may be im­posed for a con­tin­u­ing of­fence: sec­tions 5A and 13.

Prop­er­ty own­ers al­so have a du­ty to en­sure that their premis­es are free from dust and refuse like­ly to cause a nui­sance or be harm­ful to per­son's health: sec­tion 67 of the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance Chap 12 No 4 (1950) (the Or­di­nance).

Sec­tion 6 of the Act au­tho­ris­es the Lo­cal Au­thor­i­ty to take ac­tion by re­quir­ing per­sons re­spon­si­ble to re­move the lit­ter and re­store the en­vi­ron­ment to its nor­mal con­di­tions.

Along with this, sec­tion 68 of the Or­di­nance pro­vides for a fine to be levied against per­sons for of­fen­sive ma­te­ri­als thrown on pub­lic streets or places.

Fur­ther, where busi­ness­es im­prop­er­ly dis­pose of ma­te­ri­als, the EMA and lo­cal au­thor­i­ty can step in to pre­vent harm to the en­vi­ron­ment by man­dat­ing com­pli­ance.

Lit­ter­ing is an of­fence in T&T. As a form of pol­lu­tion, it ham­pers the health and safe­ty of the en­vi­ron­ment. Lit­ter­ing can af­fect ma­rine life, fa­cil­i­tate the im­prop­er and un­safe dis­pos­al of ma­te­ri­als, and even cause block­ages of rivers and drains lead­ing to the spread of dis­eases, flood­ing and oth­er haz­ards.

Be re­spon­si­ble. Obey the lit­ter laws.

This col­umn is not le­gal ad­vice. If you have a le­gal prob­lem, you should con­sult an at­tor­ney-at-law.