Witnessed a drive-by? You find ‘em we’ll fine ‘em…
It may just be a cigarette butt to some but to EPA it’s a crime.
EPA’s latest advertising campaign ‘Witnessed a drive-by’ highlighted the problem of littering from vehicles and encouraged people to report car litterers.
The campaign, run in September and October, depicted litter in a police crime scene to illustrate that when people throw litter out the car window it’s illegal.
EPA director Chris Webb said the campaign had been huge success with 3486 reports received during September and October and 1195 new online reporters registering.
“This is a public reporting system, it doesn’t work unless the community takes action and clearly they have been.
“We all need to understand that we can’t just throw things out the car window when we have no further use for them. We need to take responsibility for what we do and if you are reported for littering from your vehicle you will be fined.”
An experiential ‘crime scene’ event kicked off the campaign, with littering crime scenes set up at Federation Square. Forensic scientist’s, dressed in white suits and masks and armed with brushes and evidence bags, investigated a number of ‘litter crimes’ over the course of the morning, and over dramatised the seriousness of littering from a car.
“The purpose of this activity was to create a tongue in cheek event around the very serious issue of littering from a car, and escalate the issue that litter is a crime” Mr Webb said.
EPA’s litter reporting program allows members of the public who ‘witness a drive by’ littering offence to report the incident. EPA then investigates and issues a fine to the registered owner of the vehicle.
The report must provide vehicle registration information such as make and model, the location and time of incident, the type of litter thrown, as well as if the offence was committed by the driver or a passenger.
Anyone who ‘witnesses a drive by’ littering offence should record the details and visit EPA's litter reporting webpage to make a report.