contents
Different buses depending on the location: The canton of Schwyz is trying a special way when it comes to littering.
Pet bottles, cigarette butts, aluminum cans and so on: Littered garbage is a topic that politics has been grappling with for years. Because the trend across Switzerland is clear: littering is increasing.
That has consequences. On the one hand in the financial area: cleaning costs a lot of money. According to calculations by the Federal Office for the Environment, around 200 million francs are paid each year by the municipalities and public transport companies to dispose of the waste.
Legend:
Poster against littering on cow pastures.
Keystone
On the other hand, there are also the ecological effects: waste in nature is harmful, especially for animals. Empty aluminum cans that end up in pet food can even kill cows. Agriculture has been pointing this out with poster campaigns for years.
Parliament tightened the original proposal
A nuisance in towns and villages, a tangible danger in agriculture: This is precisely the difference that the canton of Schwyz’s new fines law, recently passed by the cantonal council, starts with. It stipulates different levels of fines: littering in inhabited areas will in future be penalized with 80 francs, while in nature and agricultural areas it will cost 250 francs.
The idea originally came from the government, but was then tightened in parliament – it increased the fine for littering in nature from 150 to 250 francs. This tightening was brought about by the farmer and SVP Cantonal Councilor Martin Brun.
If someone is caught, word should get around.
He is also confronted with the subject of littering himself because he spends the summer on the Alp in the Mythen area. “There is a wonderfully beautiful hiking trail there. And that’s why we have to do with it almost every day: people carry up the full packs, but then don’t like to carry the empty ones down any more. I don’t understand, ”says the part-time farmer annoyed.
He is well aware that the new, high fine is not enough: “Of course, it is difficult to catch someone red-handed.” Nevertheless, the SVP Cantonal Council believes in the effect of the strict rules. “They should act as a deterrent. If somebody is caught, word should get around how much they had to pay. ”
You can’t have a policeman behind every tree.
The Schwyz government can live well with that, although it initially proposed a less high fine. The amount of the fine is not the decisive factor, says safety director Herbert Huwiler. “But you have to know: if you get caught, there is a fine that hurts.” Nevertheless, he warns against overly high hopes: “You can’t have a police officer behind every tree to check.”
With the CHF 250 fine for littering in natural or agricultural areas, Schwyz is one of the strictest cantons in Switzerland. So far, only the canton of Aargau has gone further, where littering costs 300 francs. Regardless of where it happens.
However, the regulation is not undisputed there. At the beginning of 2021, the Aargau government proposed lowering the fines to 100 francs because it suspected that the police were reluctant to issue such high fines in minor cases. But after hearing the municipalities, the government withdrew the proposal.