It’s not just a Malaysian problem

PETALING JAYA: The problem of litter being thrown from high-rise residential buildings is not unique to Malaysia, with other countries also recording similar instances.

In Singapore last year, a general worker was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail after he was found guilty of throwing multiple glass bottles and plastic water bottles from the 36th floor of two towers at the Icon Residence condominium in Tanjong Pagar.

The projectiles nearly hit some people.

In June last year, a video showing an elderly woman throwing food items and cigarette butts out of her kitchen window from her high-rise unit in Queenstown, Singapore, also went viral.

In 2020, it was also reported that a 46-year-old woman threw five metal pots, a computer processing unit, computer monitor, sound bar and hi-fi set out of the window of her flat in Bishan.

In 2019, a 73-year-old delivery driver was killed after being struck by a wine bottle flung by a 49-year-old Australian from the seventh floor of a condominium there. The perpetrator was later sentenced to five and a half years’ jail.

Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor was also recently quoted as saying that cases of high-rise litter had increased from 2017 with roughly 31,200 cases recorded annually from 2020 to 2022.This was compared to an average of 19,000 cases between 2017 and 2019, she revealed.

On Monday, Singapore passed new amendments to the Environmental Public Health Act.

Under the Act, if clear evidence shows litter coming from a high-rise building, the registered owners or tenants of the unit are required to prove their innocence or risk facing enforcement action by the authorities.

Also in 2021, a drunk woman in China’s Zhejiang province threw a 123 items from the 15th floor of a building after getting into an argument with her boyfriend. The items included a stool, high heels and even a computer monitor.

In 2019, the South China Morning Post reported that a 78-year-old man was hit by a bicycle that fell from a tall building in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, leaving him in critical condition.

He was standing by a ground-floor gate of the building where he lived when the two-wheeler owned by a bike-sharing company fell from one of the windows above.

A 10-year-old boy in China was reported to have thrown a fire extinguisher from the sixth floor of a building in Guiyang, Guizhou province, killing the owner of a grocery store on the ground floor that same year. As a minor, he was not held criminally responsible.

In Hong Kong, a seven-year-old escaped serious injuries after being struck on the head by a falling hammer at a public housing estate in 2019.

In March 2015, a visitor in Hong Kong hurled a piece of luggage, fire extinguisher, Spider-Man toy and rucksack containing thousands of yuan in cash from the window of a guest house.

Later that year, a 50-year-old man was arrested after he threw a wooden cabinet, hair dryer and burning metal tray from the window of his public housing flat during a standoff with the police.