Schaerbeek searches wastebags to track down illegal dumpers

Schaerbeek searches wastebags to track down illegal dumpers
Illegal dumpsters can risk a fine of over €65,000. Credit: Laurent Gauthier/Flickr - [cropped](CC BY 2.0)

Public cleaning employees and police are searching garbage bags to determine people's identities as they step up efforts against illegal dumpings in parts of Brussels.

On Thursday, police and employees of Bruxelles Propreté worked jointly in a Schaerbeek street where public cleanliness complaints have piled up in recent months, according to Bruzz.

Rummaging through hundreds of bags dumped on Rue de Brabant on Thursday, Jonathan De Staerke pointed out that the specific days to bring out trash there had not been respected.

"There was a problem here," Alain Martens of Bruxelles Propreté told the outlet. "A lot of waste was brought from different neighbourhoods, waste was brought out on the wrong days, at the wrong time, unsorted..."

In picking out the trash, police and cleanliness employees are looking for anything that may point them in the direction of the offenders, who could risk a fine that can go up to €62,500.

"A receipt, a plate number, a parking ticket... we can use everything," Martens said, adding that "every year," there found thousands of files with clues allowing them to identify people.

Similar inspections are expected to be carried out in the street again, the outlet reports, as authorities in Schaerbeek work to respond to the complaints by local residents and shop owners in the area.

Gabriela Galindo

The Brussels Times


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