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Penalties for littering increased in Scotland

Xinhua, April 2, 2014 Adjust font size:

Higher financial penalties for littering or fly-tipping in Scotland are valid from Tuesday to punish those who doesn't bin their waste or damages the environment by dumping waste illegally.

From April 1, anyone who drops litter can be issued with a penalty of 80 pounds (about 133 U.S. dollars) instead of the previous 50 pounds, and may be prosecuted and risks a fine of up to 2,500 pounds if the penalty is not paid, according to the Scottish government.

The penalty for fly-tipping is increased to 200 pounds from the previous 50 pounds, and those who don't pay it may also be prosecuted and risk a fine of up to 40,000 pounds.

Commenting on the changes, Scottish Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said, "Scotland's natural environment is one of our greatest assets and we must do everything we can to keep it clean and litter-free. It is easy to do the right thing and put your litter in the bin -- there really is no excuse for littering."

In Scotland, 78 million pounds is spent tackling litter and fly-tipping each year, which impacts the economy, damages the environment and in some cases is affecting public health, he added.

About 250 million individual items of easily visible litter are cleared up each year, and at least 26,000 tons of waste is also dumped illegally in fly-tipping activity, showed official figures.

Scotland's first Litter Strategy is scheduled to be published later this year. Endi

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