Officials with the City of Edmonton said the amount of cigarette butts littering city streets is on the rise, and they will spend much of the summer cracking down on smokers who don’t dispose of their butts properly, and rewarding those who do.
The city said the crackdown will continue throughout the summer, with bylaw officials patrolling the downtown, and other parts of the city – urging smokers to use ashtrays and butt out responsibly.
The fine for littering in Edmonton is $250.
Litter audits with Capital City Clean Up have found cigarette-related littler is going up, and is one of the major contributors to litter in the city – officials said last year there was a 28.5 percent increase in the amount of cigarette butt litter in the city.
In addition, cigarette butts have been pointed to as possible causes in a number of fires this spring.
“In the month of May alone Fire Rescue Services has responded to almost 400 outside fires with the majority of these being caused by smoker’s materials,” Fire marshall Tom Karpa said in a press release. “Carelessly discarded cigarette butts put the public and firefighters at risk and are simply inexcusable.”
However, during this campaign, it won’t just be those who break the law who will be recognized, officials will also reward those who properly dispose of their cigarette butts – with a gift card for Tim Hortons.
Staff from the Downtown Business Association will also be handing out thousands of small pocket ashtrays.
The campaign will continue throughout the summer, it’s slated to wrap up on Sept. 10.
