Anti-smoking rules result in more cigarette butt litter

The number of cigarette butts tossed on downtown Halifax sidewalks has skyrocketed ever since new anti-smoking rules chased the last indoor smokers outside, says the head of a business lobby group.
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Anti-smoking rules result in more cigarette butt litter: lobby group - Daily News

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

By Stephen Bornais
The Daily News

CITY HALL - The number of cigarette butts tossed on downtown Halifax sidewalks has skyrocketed ever since new anti-smoking rules chased the last indoor smokers outside, says the head of a business lobby group.

Paul MacKinnon, executive director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, said customers in area stores are starting to complain about the proliferation of butts.

"There certainly are more cigarette butts around. It is an interesting lesson in bureaucratic messes," he said.

The new province-wide smoking rules that took effect Dec. 1 banned all indoor smoking - including bars - and banished addicts to the street. Once there, smokers must stay at least four metres away from any opening door or window.

Eager to get back inside, most smokers are just tossing the butts on the ground.

Many business owners had already installed ashtrays for all the smoking litter - but now others, especially those with bars or restaurants, wonder if they are legal within the four-metre buffer zone.

"Is that encouraging smoking? If that aiding and abetting a felon or what," he said.

HRM spokesman John O'Brien said the city will clean up what it can, but the ultimate responsibility belongs to street-level businesses, which are required to keep their sidewalks clean and safe.

"We're the first to admit we can't be everywhere picking up cigarettes butts," O'Brien said. "We would hope the smokers and the property owners would certainly make a effort."

The city is supposed to install new downtown garbage bins with built-in ashtrays, but there are already questions about how close even they can be to doorways and windows, MacKinnon said.

And don't count on Mother Nature to rid the city of cigarette litter.

While the paper and tobacco from a cigarette butt does decay quite quickly, the butt itself can persist for months, if not years. Under certain conditions, it can take as long as 15 years for a butt to degrade.

By their sheer numbers, butts are a major litter problem. The commission's own cleanup campaigns have discovered butts to be the number one source of litter in downtown Halifax.

It estimated metro's smokers produced as many as 800,000 butts a day.

The best long-term solution, MacKinnon said, is to change attitudes toward tossing that butt to the ground.

"We don't just finish our coffee and throw the cup on the ground, at least most of us. But everyone does it with cigarettes.That's still acceptable."

Comments

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