Paris wants fewer butts on streets

Parishas declared war on the billions of cigarette butts littering its streets, according to a WorldCrunch story.

An estimated 315 tons of butts are discarded each year on to the French capital’s streets.

The problem was exacerbated when smokers were banned from smoking in restaurants, cafés, hotels and other indoor public spaces, at which time they had no recourse but to take to the streets.

Now, the city’s authorities have begun installing 10,000 public trash bins with ashtrays in an attempt to deal with the problem of discarded butts.

And they are to increase the fine for dropping butts on to the pavement from €35 to €68.

The story quoted Le Monde as reporting that millions of filters end up blocking sewers and pollutingParis’ water supply with toxic substances such as nicotine, phenol and heavy metals.