The authorities may impose a fine for all residents of a high-rise apartment if one of them does not segregate the garbage thrown in the communal trash bin.
According to Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, they could be forced to do this due to the difficulty in identifying individual tenants who flout the new rules on garbage segregation that took effect on Wednesday (1 June).
He said the notice for the fines will be sent to the residents of the multi-storey residential blocks via the property’s management committees.
“The management committees have to be strong. They need to tell them (residents) that when we issue (fines), everyone will get it,” he said.
Abdul Rahman explained that they are now strictly enforcing the rules on segregation, but it was introduced in September 2015 under the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act of 2007.
Under this law, residents must segregate their garbage into paper, plastics and others. If not, they will need to pay fines ranging from RM50 to RM1,000.
Residents of landed homes who do not separate their thrash need to pay RM50 for the first violation, RM100 for the second offence and RM500 for the third.
For non-landed residences like condos and apartments, the fine is RM100, RM200 and RM500 respectively. But if the resident is still flouting the rules for the fourth time, he will need to pay a hefty fine of RM1,000.
At present, the rule on trash segregation is being strictly enforced in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Johor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Kedah and Perlis.
Abdul Rahman added that it is important to segregate trash as the expenditure on disposing garbage and cleaning up public areas have risen by nearly RM2 billion per annum.
“This money could be used to build schools, universities and hospitals, but we used it for this purpose, so we should be responsible and reduce waste,” he added.
Image: Sourced from The Malay Mail Online
Mangalesri Chandrasekaran, Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email mangales@propertyguru.com.my
