A. Depositing rubbish, litter or waste

A. Depositing rubbish, litter or waste

Offence under the Summary Offences Ordinance 

Section 4(1) of the Summary Offences Ordinance (Cap. 228) is one of the oldest mechanisms for maintaining urban cleanliness. Section 4(1) makes it an offence for a person, without lawful authority or excuse, to throw or lay, or to cause or knowingly permit to be thrown or laid, any carrion, dirt, soil, straw, dung, filth, rubbish or offensive matter in a public place. The offence is punishable by a fine of $2,000 and imprisonment for 3 months.  

Meaning of “throwing or laying” 

While “throwing” is a positive act, courts have held that dropping rubbish and refusing to pick it up after a police warning constitutes a deliberate act of “throwing or laying”. 

Offences under the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisances Regulation 

Separately, the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisances Regulation (Cap. 132BK) provides more specific and modern controls over public cleanliness.  

Dumping of litter in public places 

Under section 4(1)(a) of the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisances Regulation, no person may deposit, or cause or permit to be deposited, any litter or waste on or in any street or public place.  This may cover sweeping refuse into a gutter, throwing rubbish into a roadside drain, dumping food waste, packaging, mud or debris into a channel and leaving waste in a way that may enter or block a gutter. 

The penalty is a fine of $25,000 and imprisonment for 6 months. Alternatively, a public officer can issue a fixed penalty notice of $3,000 to the offender. For more information about the fixed penalty notice, please refer to “Fixed penalty for public cleanliness and obstruction offences”. 

Use of public litter bins and private receptacles 

Depositing litter in a public place is an offence unless the litter is placed in a container lawfully provided by the relevant authority. Since the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene is solely responsible for providing public waste removal services, members of the public cannot rely on “de facto” collection points or unauthorised containers placed by private individuals, such as a bamboo basket left on the street, to satisfy their legal duty to dispose of waste properly. Accordingly, depositing waste in such an unauthorised private container does not absolve a person from liability. 

Occupier’s liability 

Under section 4(2) of the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisances Regulation, if litter or waste is deposited from a window, balcony, verandah, or rooftop of any premises in contravention of the general prohibition on littering, the occupier of those premises is guilty of an offence. The penalty is a fine of $25,000 and imprisonment for 6 months. 

The occupier may avoid liability only by proving that the contravention was committed by a person who was neither a member of the occupier’s family nor employed by the occupier. Under section 4(3), it is not a defence for the occupier to show that the contravention was committed without his consent or knowledge.  

Deposit of pigwash 

Further, section 14(2) provides that it is a criminal offence to deposit, or permit the deposit of, any pigwash in or into public places. Contravention of section 14(2) is an offence punishable by a fine of $5,000 on a first conviction and a fine of $10,000 on a second or subsequent conviction.