Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) will add more refuse collection contractors and rubbish bins to its ranks to help make Petaling Jaya a cleaner place to live in, according to mayor Mohd Azizi Mohd Zain.

He said that the move was part of the plan to make Petaling Jaya a City of Art.

“There is either not enough bins or too much rubbish. We will try to provide more bins so that people can have a place to throw away their rubbish,” he said at a press conference at MBPJ headquarters today after a full board meeting.

“We collect domestic waste three times a week, and from a study at Sri Damansara, the quantity of rubbish is increasing.”

Azizi said that MBPJ was willing to spend to make the city greener and also willing to take action against litter bugs.

“This means that for PJ, if we want it to be clean, we will have to spend. Our domestic waste levels in 2014 were 400 tonnes a day.

When we appointed contractor that was the amount we paid them for. However, waste levels are now at 600 tonnes a day.

“The ‘Do Not Litter’ signs are not effective. It is more effective to bring litterbugs to court and let the judge decide. The punishment for littering is a compound or one week in prison, or both,” he said.

MBPJ has 68 contractors collecting rubbish and 35 contractors processing solid waste in Petaling Jaya.

“For 2016, we have a budget of RM45 million just for rubbish and cleaning, plus RM65 million for solid waste disposal,” Azizi said.

The mayor also said that MBPJ would be spending RM1.5 million on making MBPJ Headquarters a green building.

“When we push the private sector to operate green buildings we should have one already,” he said.

To be a City of Art and a sustainable city by 2030, MBPJ will look to develop areas like Seksyen 52, the Dewan Sivik Auditoriom, Petaling Jaya Muzium and the MBPJ headquarters area to house artists’ work.

MBPJ is also planning to install LED lights in back alleys, recycle through the 3R programme, and participate in Earth Hour.