Public concerned over fly tipping in Barkers
(CNS): Although the Department of Environmental Health is endeavouring to keep on top of the fly-tipping around the island, pictures taken by CNS on Monday following information from readers showed that some people are still confusing Barkers National Park with Mount Trashmore. Old washing machines, dishwashers, feed bags, beer cans, oil containers, old carpets and bursting garbage bags were just some of the rubbish tipped on the park’s main road just yards from the no littering sign. Although the police are responsible for enforcing the law when people break it the already hard pressed DoEH has to clear away the unsightly mess at one of Cayman’s favourite beauty spots. Police say they are aware of the problems of fly tipping and plan to prosecute anyone they catch in the act.
Category: Crime
to Brit 15:15.
Hi Brit/CNS
Do what i did with my nasty neighbours – get a can of gasoline and set fire to that mess!!!
their dogs would come over and pull gargabe all over the place. I collected all my garbage one afternoon and threw it on their porch – The DOGS BEEN TIED UP SINCE!
What about the NRA equipment illegally dumped across from PPM HQ? Does anyone care?
They think that by painting over their logos we won’t know who the equipment was dumped there by.
Prolly not
Agreed on all the comments about being disrespectful, to the country, environment, fellow man etc. but I wanted to share a brief story, years ago (15+) I was driving into Barkers, wanted to check out the beach, a Police car started following me, when I got out they stopped to make sure I wasn't dumping my car there, cheek.. I've since bought a nicer car! The point I'm making is that this issue has been around for years, I'm a practical sort of person, so if people are migrating to this area to dump trash it must be close to where it's being generated, no-ones going to drive past the dump to make a special trip to Barkers, so why not just leave a dumpster close by, screen it off or something, pick it up every couple of weeks. If you figure out the remedial costs of cleaning up the area after the fact it can't be much worse.
Ummm cuz it's a national park?
umm, cuz it's only 8 miles to the Free legal dump.
So your answer is to do nothing except complain that people shouldn't do bad things.
08:28 – The fine for littering in the Cayman Islands is $500 minimum and perhaps the same for illegal dumping. That itself is a joke but the real joke is that it is never enforced. I would bet that a search of Court records over the entire existence of that fine (35+ years?) might reveal a half-dozen prosecutions and less convictions.
The Ministers of rubbish, and the Police are incompetent.
From the time the law against littering came about (some decades now) I am not aware of one single fine / arrest / prosecution.
in the brac the government dumps old machines/dyers vehicles and lots of other things behind
capt. maby drive are they going to be proscuted ?
Go through the trash…….maybe the idiots left a business card or some personal mail with a PO Box!
Terrible but I have the same problem with my dirty neighbors they use the fence line & the bottom of the garden as a dumping ground for everything from household general garbage to cars, beds, bed frames on on the list goes. If DOEH can't deal with these issues on either problem then get someone in who can & will enforce it. Yes I am Caymanian & so are my dirty neigbors. My yard is immaculate as I take pride in keeping it clean & tidy unlike some.
what in the world is fly tipping
NEVER heard of that in my life
you must be talking about ILLEGAL DUMPING !!!
come on now , call it what is really is !!
A CRIME !!!
what is next next ? bee tipping ? they make enough tip with the honey !!! lol
Don't have many UK friends I'm guessing. Fly-tipping refers to tipping on the fly, whilst not hanging around, tipping whilst on the move, all those apply as a description. To tip, is to empty out or to throw out.
If you have heard the expression 'on the fly' you should be able to apply it to here. Now when you go to the UK and see signs saying no fly-tipping you'll know what they are on about!
Where's Tara's clean up WB committee?
Why does it have to be Tara's? Why don't the idle opposition WB backbenchers earn their keep?
AT LAST! A noble cause for Cappy Eugene. Please tell me why I gots to pay that guy a hundred grand every year.
It is just another thing where police and government are clueless and helpless! Just check the Newlands Bypass how that is constantly lined with litter, yet police never see anyone throwing anything out. It is no wonder as they are never patroling the area! When people call in to report someone littering, the trail goes cold because police just can't be bothered and eventually people are getting fed up with trying to make reports. Until a few examples are made of some people/companies who are littering, nothing will change. But we wouldn't want to take a hard stance now and potentially piss off any voters, would we?
Trash dumping trash. The same people who encourage their legislators to delay any environmental legislation for fear it will devalue thir land even more than the trash they cover it in.The same people who allow their dogs to run wild and breed like rabbits etc, etc..
Catch in the act………..tha's funny!!!!
This is shameful!! Someone has to see truckloads of garbage going into Barkers and not coming out! The RCIPS' reaction of planning to prosecute anyone they catch in the act of dumping thrash in the Barkers area (or anywhere) is akin to HM Customs Department's recent "actions" relating to containers full of stolen property – 'Let's detect the crime but arrange our surveillence to not observe the perps'. The easier approach I guess!
My daughter and I have cleaned up garbage in Barkers several times. We live just down the road and love going there. I don't understand why people would just leave their trash in the road.
What happened to the 10 Park Rangers at Barkers? They are paid $560,000 to patrol – or have they been let go?
They probably have been let go.
Excellent point. I believe they have been reassigned to a project team looking into the feasibility of installing slot machines at the L/A.
Behind Midland Acres too, in the swamplands and by Meagre … they doing the same thing there.
huh … isnt that where the other dump was proposed to be?
No dumb-a$$, that is where the waste management facility was supposed to go! Not a dump!
Ignorance at it again.
What are the fines here?
Where I'm from fly-tipping for an individual carries a fine of up to CI$ 437,286.15 or 7 years jail.
For a corporation it is up to CI$ 859,429.63
In addition the vehicle can be siezed.
Oh and by the way we do get charged to take stuff to the dump. Not like here.
Now as for the constant pigs that throw rubbish from cars here
finesback home range from CI$ 211 for a small piece of rubbish or unlit cigarette to CI$ 422 for a lit cigarette.
Somehow I bet theres a $20 fine if anyone even cared.I guess its all comes down to how much you value your country and your tourism product.
It all comes down to pure laziness.
I am now waiting to see the usual response to a post like this, "go home then"
Great post. There is probably a fine here but even if you can prove who dumped the garbage, they won't prosecute unless the police see them dumping! It's crazy! Let's put cameras on the entrance to Barkers and we will see who is going in with garbage.
These are the same horrendous slobs that toss their styrotrays, chicken and fish bones, snack garbage, paint cans, used condoms and baby diapers out of their moving cars, and are just as bad in my book. Go to the point under the Casaurinas at the end of "Safehaven Drive" and there are piles of recreational and industrial wreckage there. Oil cans from somebody's Minibus oil change and unbelievable crap that was deliberately left for someone else to remedy for them. It's like their little rebellion moment because their life has been so hard done by. Well, suck it up pal, and put your trash in its place, or go home. We really don't need any more self-centered people here – we're all full.
I have to think some of these people aren't err 'cleaning themselves properly after a sit down trip to the bathroom. Ugg.
Exactly what is fly tipping?Seems like what you are discussing is illegal dumping;if so just call it illegal dumping and not some foreign term.
Haven't you figured out yet that everything, including the slang, in the UK is better than everything here? Illegal dumping sounds boorishly American; fly tipping sounds sophisticated and posh.
This is what I don't understand: There are cameras at the corner of Conch Point and Reg Parsons. The cameras record trucks going east into Barkers full. The cameras record trucks going west from Barkers empty.
Look at the tapes + see the license number + fine offenders = stop dumping!
I take mine to Bodden Town, its a dump anyway.
So sad, it was also mentioned in one of the most popular Cayman tourist blogs last month so unfortunately potential tourists may be put off visiting.
Seriously, what is wrong with these people? Is it any harder to drive to the dump? It boggles the mind!
Get the prisoners out there one day under supervision to get that area cleaned up! It will give the prisoners fresh air, a community task to do, and make a difference in a section of the island. If not the prisoners, have students in the schools.
Seriously ,what is wrong with these people ? If we caymanians dont help keep Cayman clean , the other people can go back to their Country . I would say we can do a lot of damage with just our camera / cel phone to who is responible for this illegal dumping . I am sure that it will stop when the health minister and the police are showed these pictures before they go public for the world to see and read about how they are not doing thier jobs, and trashing up the enviorment .
I agree. In the Uk recently, Government Agencies have installed hidden CCTV cameras in some of the worst spots for fly tipping. This has resulted in successful prosecutions. Still it's a sad indictment of our society all over the World. What sadden me is the blatant disregard for the environment. We are part-time Brackers and we sat at Scotts Dock last year and watched as a local man finished his take out and drink and just threw the rubbish in the sea, there was a bin less than 20 paces away from him. This was an Adult, what signals does this give out to the next generation. we get involved in beach clean ups but when local residents do this how will things ever improve?.
I posted quite recently about the likely increase in this kind of thing were a fee to be introduced at the landfill public drop-off as proposed by the experts at E&Y (aren't they an accounting firm?). Evidently some folks thought I was not correct in predicting this. Every country I've lived in don't charge and recognise that to do so would be a serious disincentive towards using the the drop-off and a real incentive to fly-tip. Now we can go the route of "education the public towards being responsible and good citizens" as well as "vigorously enforcing the law" (good luck) or follow the example of other countries who have exercised their common sense. Personally I'd go with the common sense.
But you can't privatize common sense.
Thank goodness, no. That's why the E&Y report contained precious little of it.
"Good ole Caymanian Common Sense from the Sacred Wessell"s" not something I would stick with, look where we are at now with that line of thinking.
Yeah, I'm sure these are the expats on the brac doing all this dumping becuase Caymanians love thier environment so much..
Disgusting! What a mess!
The biggest looser in the world did this that "garbage" is worth money if taken to the recyclers on dump road
What's a "looser"??
Someone with a stutter? (And I've got one myself!)
The word "looser" is not in my dictionary!
Of course it is. "I don't know which is looser, pirate wenches or carnival revellers".
I suggest that you get another dictionary. A belt nay be made LOOSER.
Next time you play at being a smartarse, think before you press send.
My mistake, but there is no need to be rude about it, loser.
From the Urban Dictionary. "A looser is a loser who can't spell "loser".
Install a couple of CCTV cameras out there. Then when the culprits are identified they should be prosecuted and named in the media. People will only stop doing this when you hit them where it hurts, in the wallet and public embarrassment.
Agreed. There is one way in and one way out of Barkers. It would be very easy to put a camera on the last utility pole by Pappagallos and watch for trucks going in full and coming out empty. In addition to a severe monetary penalty the offenders should be sentenced to at least 100 hours of community service to clean up after other people that dump illegally. Maybe then they would change their ways.
I'm afraid installing a couple of cameras (or even a couple of hundred of them) as well as heavy fines and lengthy community service sentences will do exceedingly little to prevent fly tipping on a massive scale once it gets going. Think about it – if it occurs in countries (including Cayman) that currently offer fee-less legal waste disposal, do you honestly believe creating a disincentive like charging at the landfill won't cause a massive increase? And what about the costs involved in collection and monitoring likey places for illegal dumping, following up on identification, police and court time involved in prosecutions etc etc? Please be pragmatic above all else and encourage the public towards responsible waste management and disposal.
Blah blah blah. The police are lying. How hard can it be to catch some lazy hillbilly dumping the trash from their lazy ass life at the entrance to the national park. The police don't care and they don't even know if it's illegal. And it's probably not illegal. XXXX Christ, I asked the police if it was legal to park a car in a traffic lane and they didn't know. Blah blah blah…
Cayman is a joke. Minister of Rubbish? Where art thou? "He's holding fort in Bodden Town, because he is a Bodden Towner, before he is a Caymanian."