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In a recent survey of litter in ireland, it was found that Irelands  cities and towns are now cleaner than they have been for many years – thanks to better awareness from the public, more bins and a huge effort from city and town councils.

However, some pedestrians and motorists ignore bins and drop cigarette butts and food on the streets.

Litter Report 2008

The 2008 National Litter Pollution Monitoring System report found that Cigarette-related litter formed 46% of street litter and food packaging & Sweet wrappers making up 17% of all litter.

For some reason, cigarette smokers have some sort of ignorance when it comes to litter. Cigarette Butts also contain over 4,000 toxins which can kill birds and fish – so why, when finished a cigarette do smokers flick their butt into the streets – in a “F**k it, someone else will clean  that up!” attitude.

Smokers should be fined for doing this – after all it is litter. If they are not fined then there should be a 10c tax on each cigarette in a packet to pay for butt clean up.

Butts in Australia

In Australia, cigarette butt awareness is something which is pushed quite a lot. On beaches, and in cities, signs tell you to put your cigarette butt in the bin.

Some examples are shown below.

Cigarette Butts - Signs in Australia

Naming and Shaming

I think Ireland may have to Name and Shame pubs, restuarants or outlets which don’t encourage smokers to bin their butts when finished smoking.

The 10 Step Test

Try walking 10 steps in the city without seeing a cigarette butt on the ground – it is almost impossible.