Get caught littering in San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, and you risk having your photo posted on a billboard and being labeled a pig.

Municipal authorities are so serious about citizens dumping garbage in public places that they have adopted some stringent measures to counter the activity.

Serial litterbug Jaime Antonio Molina Martínez is undergoing a public shaming after he was caught dumping garbage in a public place for the third time.

His photo now graces a billboard and the municipality’s website along with the inscription, “Arrested for Being a Pig.” He was the first to be punished in that way since the measure was introduced in San Nicolás, part of the metropolitan area of the state capital Monterrey.

“We have one of the best garbage collection services in the country,” said Mayor Pedro Salgado Almaguer, “but even then we pick up a huge amount of garbage” in public places such as streets and parks. It amounts to 25 tonnes a day, he said.

A warning is given the first time someone is caught littering, a fine on the second and a higher fine the third time, along with the billboard photo.

Salgado said they use the word pig because “things must be named for what they are.”

Source: EFE (en), Excélsior (sp)