DES MOINES – Sick of seeing garbage and trash littering our roadways and ditches? Stiffer penalties may be on the way for those responsible.
On Thursday February 4, 2016, House File 2154 was introduced by a bi-partisan group of rural and urban House members and ultimately referred to the House Environmental Protection Committee for its consideration. This bill increases the criminal penalty for illegal dumping or littering from a simple misdemeanor to a serious misdemeanor and directs the courts to order a person convicted of this crime to reimburse the Department of Natural Resources for the cost of clean-
ing up the illegally dumped waste or litter.
Under current law, a person guilty could be sentenced to up to 30-days imprisonment and a fine of between $65 and $625. Moving the penalty up to a serious misdemeanor could lengthen incarceration up to no more than one year and a fine of not more than $1,875.
Illegal dumping and littering is a growing and persisting problem, republican legislators say, especially in fringe areas of major metropolitan communities. Not only does this activity blight area where it occurs, but it create a serious financial burden for communities to clean the mess up.
Republicans say this legislation is supported by a number of local communities who are struggling with this problem and want more deterrence to the act and compensation for the cost of clean- ing up the debris and dumps items frequently found along low-use public right-of-ways.
Just look at Walmart. Trash cans all over the parking lot but yet there is trash everywhere you look. We already have laws on the books but how often do you see anyone fined for littering. Enforce our current laws and it will solve the problems. More laws with more fines will do no good at all if they are not enforced.
Exactly, and don’t forget about cigarette butts, probably the worst of them all. There is a law, and I can’t remember if it’s state or city, but it’s illegal to smoke in public areas like a park. Now I haven’t been up there lately, but I’d bet that around the bus depot in central park it looks like the back door, and some front doors, of the local watering holes. I’ve seen the park employees picking up cigarette butts in front of Laredos. I didn’t know that area was a park. It’s the same outside Wal Mart, Menards, Fareway, Hy Vee, etc…etc..
I don’t think that it’s Caseys or McDonalds that’s throwing trash around their businesses, it’s the slobs that don’t care. Both places have garbage cans outside the building, which really doesn’t mean a thing if your to lazy to use them.
I live next to caseys in Manly – pick up about 100 wrappers per week in the summertime.
I live close to Mc Donalds, and get garbage in yard every day, so I agree and wish that they would inforse the law
When I was in high school I worked at McDonald’s and our manager would send us out into the neighborhood to pick up litter from our restaurant. It seem to make us a better neighbor with the rest of the neighborhood when we would do this. They should think about bringing back this practice.
While this is a good idea, my question is, who’s going to enforce it, and how are they going to enforce it. Making the penalty stiffer, is not going to make it go away.