Rubbish

Source : TAWAU MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ORDINANCE 1961

(No. 11 of 1961)

TAWAU MUNICIPAL COUNCIL (ANTI-LITTER) BY-LAWS 1984

(G.N.L 73 of 1984)

In exercise of the powers conferred upon it by subsection (1) of section 50 of the Local Government Ordinance 1961, the Tawau Municipal Council, with the approval of the Minister, has made the following by-laws:

1. Citation and commencement.

These by-laws may be cited as the Tawau Municipal Council (Anti-litter) By-laws 1984, and shall apply to the whole area under the jurisdiction of the Council and shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st day of April 1984.

2. Interpretation.

“building” means any home, hut, stall, shed or roofed enclosure, whether used for the purpose of human habitation or otherwise, and also any wall, fence, platform, staging, gate, post, pillar, paling, frame, hoarding, slip, dock, wharf, pier, jetty, landing-stage or bridge or any structure, support or foundation connected to the foregoing;

“garden refuse” means any refuse from garden and agricultural operations;

“litter” means any dust, sand, earth, gravel, clay, stone, paper, ashes, carcase, refuse, leaves and branches, grass, straw, boxes, barrels, bales, shavings, sawdust, garden refuse, stable refuse, trade refuse, manure, garbage, bottles, glass, can, food container, food wrapper, particles of food or other things or articles;

“occupier” includes any person in actual occupation of any premises or having the charge, management or control thereof, and in the case of property subdivided or let to various tenants or lodgers, the person who for the time being receiving the rent payable by the tenants or lodgers whether on his own account or as agent for any person entitled thereto or interested therein;

“owner” shall have the same meaning assigned to it in the Local Government Ordinance, 1961;

“place of public resort” means any building or defined or enclosed place used or constructed or adapted to be used either ordinarily or occasionally as a church, chapel, mosque, temple or other place where public worship or religious ceremony are performed (not being merely a dwelling-house so used), or as a cinema, theatre, public hall, public concert room, public ballroom, public lecture room or public exhibition room, or as a public place of assembly for persons admitted thereto by ticket or otherwise, or used or constructed or adapted to be used either ordinarily or occasionally for any other public purpose;

“public place” includes every public highway, street, road, sea beach, bridge, square, court, lane, alley or passage, bridle way, footway, parade, wharf, jetty, quay, public park, garden or open space (enclosed or unenclosed), and every theatre, place of public entertainment of any kind or any place of public resort to which admission is obtained or to which the public have access, whether on payment or otherwise;

“stable refuse” means the dung or urine of horses, cattle, sheep, goats, buffaloes or pigs, and the sweepings or refuse of drainage from any stables or sheds for keeping horses, cattle, sheep, goats, buffaloes, pigs or poultry;

“street” means any road, square, footway, back lane or passage whether a thoroughfare or not, over which the public have a right of way, also the way over any public bridge, and also includes any road, footway, or passage, open court or open alley used or intended to be used as a means of access to two or more holdings, whether the public have a right of way there over or not; and all channels, drains, ditches and reserves at the side of any street shall be deemed to be part of such street;

“trade refuse” means the refuse of any trade, manufacture or business of any building operations;

“vehicle” means any vehicle whether mechanically propelled or otherwise.

3. What constitutes an offence.

Any person who-

(a) places, deposits or throws or causes or allows to be placed, deposited or thrown any litter in any public place;

(b) dries any article of food or any article or thing in any public place;

(c) throws, places, spills or scatters any blood, brine, swill noxious liquid or other offensive or filthy matter of any kind in such manner as to run or fall into any public place;

(d) drops, spills or scatters any dirt, sand, earth, gravel, clay, loam, stone, grass, straw, shavings, sawdust, ashes, garden refuse, stable refuse, trade refuse, manure, garbage or any other thing or matter in any public place, whether from a moving or stationary vehicle or on any other manner;

(e) sieves, shakes, cleans, beats or otherwise agitates any lime, ashes, sand, coal, hair, waste paper, feathers or other substances in such manner that it is carried or likely to be carried by the wind to any public place;

(f) throws or leaves behind any bottle, glass, can, food container, food wrapper, particles of food or any other articles or things in any public place;

(g) during the construction, alteration or demolition of any building or erection or at any time whatsoever, deposits, drops, leaves or places, or cause to be deposited, dropped, left or placed in or onto any public place, any stone, cement, earth, sand, wood or other building material, thing or substance, or who fails to take reasonable precautions to prevent danger to the life, health or well-being of persons using any public place from flying dust or falling fragments or any other materials,

shall be guilty of an offence.

4. Presumption as to offender.

For the purposes of by-law 3 (d), where the thing is dropped, split from a vehicle or drops or spills therefrom, the driver or the owner of the vehicle shall be deemed to have committed the offence unless the contrary is proved.

5. Occupier of land/building liable.

If in any case it is shown that any dust or other substance in these By-laws mentioned has been deposited in any public place in contravention of these By-laws from any building or land or that any such water or offensive matter has run, drained or been thrown or put upon into any street or drain in contravention of these By-laws, it shall be presumed that the offence was committed by or by the permission of the occupier of such building or land.

6. Occupier to keep footways, backyard and canopies clean.

The owner or occupier of any premises shall cause the immediate vicinity of his premises, including the footways and backyards abutting thereon and canopies projecting from any building over the footways, to be swept and kept clean.

7. Occupier to keep private street clean.

The owner or occupier of any premises abutting on a private street shall cause such portion of the street as fronts, adjoins or abuts on his premises and up to the centre thereof to be kept clean.

8. Penalties.

(1) Any person who commits a breach or contravenes any of the provisions of these By-laws shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit and in the case of a continuing offence to a further fine of two hundred ringgit for every day during which the offence continues.

(2) In addition to or in substitution for the penalty provided in paragraph (1) of this by-law any expense incurred by the Council in consequence of any breach or contravention of these By-laws or in the execution of any work directed by these By-laws to be executed by any person and not executed by such person, whether performed by the Council or some other contractor, together with a surcharge or not more than ten per centum of such expense shall be paid by the person committing such breach or failing to execute such work and may be recoverable as if such sum were a civil debt.

9. Compounding of offences.

(1) Any officer of the Council duly authorised by it in writing may in his discretion compound any offence under these By-laws by collecting from a person reasonably suspected of having committed the offence a sum not exceeding one hundred ringgit.

(2) On payment of such sum of money, no further proceedings shall be taken against the person in respect of such offence.

(3) The payment shall be evidenced by a receipt issued by the officer so authorised to compound the offence.

10. Power of arrest.

(1) Any officer of the Council duly authorised by the Council or any police officer may arrest without warrant any person who commits in his presence or whom he reasonably believes to have committed any offence under these By-laws:

(a) if the name or address of the person is unknown to him and the person declines to give his name and address; or

(b) if there is reason to doubt the accuracy of his name or address.

(2) A person arrested under this by-law shall be detained and shall be brought before a Magistrate’s Court within twenty-four hours unless his name and address are sooner ascertained.

11. Repeal.

The Tawau Municipal Council (Anti-litter) By-laws 1980 is hereby repealed.

Dated at Tawau this 3rd day of May 1984.

DATUK HAJI BISTARI JINRAIN,

President,

Tawau Municipal Council.

I approve the foregoing By-laws.

Dated at Kota Kinabalu this 29th day of August 1984.

AYUB AMAN,

Ministry of Town and Country Development.

September 2006

Plastic carry-bag are contributing a share to a deadly pollution whose ill-effects are irreversible and capable of reaching out to numerous generations to come.

Plastic is one of the major toxic pollutants in Tawau. Plastic being a non-biodegradable substance, composed of toxic chemicals that pollutes earth, air and water.

Plastic causes serious damage to environment both during its production and disposal.

The major chemicals that go into the making of plastic are highly toxic and pose serious threat to living beings of all species on earth.

Some of the constituents of plastic such as benzene and vinyl chloride are known to cause cancer, while many others are gases and liquid hydrocarbons that vitiate earth and air. Plastic resins themselves are flammable and have contributed considerably to several accidents worldwide.

The noxious substances emitted during the production of plastic are synthetic chemicals like ethylene oxide, benzene and xylenes. Besides hitting hard the eco-system, which is already fragile, these chemicals can cause an array of maladies ranging from birth defects to cancer, damage the nervous system and the immune system and also adversely affect the blood and the kidneys. And, many of these toxic substance are emitted during recycling of plastic.

Since plastic does not undergo bacterial decomposition, landfilling using plastic would mean preserving the poison forever.

When burned, plastic releases a host of poisonous chemicals into the air, including dioxin, the most toxic substance known to science.

Recycling of plastic is associated with skin and respiratory problems, resulting from exposure to and inhalation of toxic fumes, especially hydrocarbons and residues released during the process. What is worse, the recycled plastic degrades in quality and necessitates the production of more new plastic to make the original product.

Plastic wastes clog the drains and thus hit especially urban sewage systems. The plastic wastes being dumped into rivers, streams and seas contaminate the water, soil, marine life and also the very air we breathe. Choked drains provide excellent breeding grounds for disease-causing mosquitoes besides causing flooding during the monsoons.

Any attempt to ‘get rid of’ plastic through landfills is also dangerous. Apart form toxic seepage from the landfill, resulting in the contamination of precious water sources, the waste mass impedes the flow of ground water as well and obstructs the movement of roots – thereby badly affecting the soil’s biological balance and organic processes.

Landfills are also prone to leaks. The wastes – especially cadmium and lead in the wastes – invariably mix with rain water, then seep through the ground and drain into nearby streams and lakes and other water bodies. Thus the water we use gets poisoned.

Filthy sight of rubbish and garbage left unattended by the local town authority. Prolonged pick-up of garbage and other environmental services.

A female rat capable to give birth 60 young in an 18-month period. As a result lots of rats running around. Continuous young rats population come out of their nesting areas and feeding on the garbage.

This increase in rats is unpleasant an indication of an unhealthy society with low health education in Tawau.

Such poor hygiene environment was the result of those who stay here are mostly poor educational level and those who manage the authority are with a middle/SMK educational level.