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MOORE: Sustainable development 101: Ban the butt for a greener, cleaner world 

Set aside the costs and consequences of the toxicity of the billions of cigarette filters that have found their way in our rivers, lakes and oceans and consider the clean-up costs in our cities.

One recent assessment of tobacco litter estimated that public litter costs for large U.S. cities range from $3 million to $16 million a year, with tobacco litter comprising between 22 to 36 per cent of the visible litter.

The concept of user-pay or, in this case, polluter-pay should reign but doesn’t. Think tobacco lobby, political gridlock and tax fatigue. And tobacco addicts already pay all sorts of taxes for their nicotine fix while not every single one of uses the great outdoors as their ashtray. Some smokers even chow down on unfiltered cigs. . . .

If you can’t tax cigarette butts – and ensure that part of the tax will cover all clean-up costs – then ban them.

A ban on single-use non-biodegradable cigarette filters would be a form of inexpensive sustainable development: Cut off toxic pollution at the source.

Harsh, you say? We are talking about folks who already hack and who, as a collective, often can’t be bothered smoking within designated areas, seem unable to find their way to outdoor ashtrays provided them and can’t be bothered to pick up their own toxic crap.

Reusable cigarette holders were good enough for Audrey Hepburn ( as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s), they should be good enough for that smoky-smelling lot.

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Portland smokers to get fined for tossing cigarette butts  

In the spring, Portland's Downtown District, with help from the city, will launch a campaign touting the environmental and aesthetic reasons not to litter cigarette butts. The campaign, to be funded with a $1,000 grant from the national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful, will include signs on trash cans throughout the city and outreach through social media.

The sight of cigarette butts, seemingly everywhere, is one of the most common complaints from tourists who visit Portland.

City officials hope the threat of a $100 fine will get smokers to kick the habit of flicking their butts on the ground.

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No doubts – dropping a match or a fag end could cost you £50  

DROPPING a cigarette end, match or wrapper could be seriously bad ... for your wallet in Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs.

Fed-up council chiefs have declared war on anti-social smokers who are littering pavements and roads throughout East Dunbartonshire.

A zero-tolerance campaign, ‘No Butts About It’, kicks off next month – preceded by a two-week awareness campaign.

You could even be hit with a £50 fine for dropping a cigarette wrapper or match.

Councillor John Dempsey insists: “Smokers need to take responsibility and consider other members of their community, as well as their local environment.

“If a smoker is unable to dispose of their cigarette litter in the ashtray bins provided, they must take their litter home and dispose of it in the appropriate manner.”

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Toss a cigarette butt in Portland, get a $100 fine  

The City Council on Monday night unanimously passed an amendment to the litter ordinance clarifying that dropping cigarette butts on city property — including streets, sidewalks, parks, alleys and gutters — is littering and can be fined accordingly.

The move came about in response to concerns expressed by members of Portland’s Downtown District and its executive director, Jan Beitzer.

“She said the No. 1 complaint she gets from visitors and businesspeople is the prevalence of cigarette butts in the downtown,” Councilor John Anton told his fellow councilors Monday night.

Anton said studies have shown a third of all garbage nationally consists of cigarette butts, and pointed out that the city of San Francisco has put a 20-cent surcharge on each pack of cigarettes sold to cover the costs of cleanup.

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EDITORIAL: But me no 'butts' about your DNA  

While Foster's is not particularly interested in taking a position on dog poop left on Cheney properties, we are interested stopping the disgusting habit of discarded cigarettes.

Why is it that, despite decades of anti-liter campaigns, all too many smokers continue to believe their discarded butts somehow evaporate in thin air before they can liter the ground.

Of course, we are not about to involve the DNA butt police, as been done in the case of DNA and dog poop. But, we will use this opportunity to ask smokers who still liter the back doors of businesses, the sidewalks of our cities and our beautiful beaches to clean up their act.

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ROE: PGA Needs to Address Smoking and Marijuana Use by Players: A Fan's Perspective 

The PGA needs to change some of its rules during play. Sunday, during the WM Phoenix Open, Spencer Levin presented a good example of one rule that needs to go. While the tournament was hosting its annual green-out, Levin was contentedly puffing cigarettes and leaving the butts scattered around the course for someone else to clean up.

Every other sport has condemned the smoking habit. . . .

As long as it is allowed, smoking on the green will continue. The presiding authority, the PGA itself has to be the one to step forward and put a stop to it. The fans can complain, but as long as people like Levin can laugh it off, complaints do not mean a thing. Levin seemed immune from the criticism projected on him for his ugly habit. He even referred to the objectors as "you mean guys in the crowd".

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Cigarette littering fine considered  

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH - What began as a workshop discussion to try to find ways to limit or ban smoking in public parks and on the beach, ended up with a likely crackdown on people who improperly dispose of their cigarette butts.

If a proposed ordinance is passed by the Indian Rocks Beach City Commission in January, smokers could face a $500 fine if they litter the beach with their cigarette butts.

Commissioner Terry Hamilton-Wollin met with a number of citizens who favor a smoke-free environment in the parks and beaches in Indian Rocks Beach and she came away convinced that something had to be done. So in a special hour-long workshop Dec. 13, the commission heard a presentation from health professionals and an anti-smoking group as to the hazards of secondhand smoke in public places.

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Cigarette butts pile up on beaches 

Despite years of work to reduce beach trash, the number of cigarette butts collected during local cleanups has grown significantly over the past five years, according to new data released by conservation groups.

In 2011, volunteers organized by the Surfrider Foundation and Coastkeeper San Diego regularly scoured San Diego County shorelines and collected 5,500 pounds of trash. The total haul was up slightly from 2007 but down significantly from 2009 and 2010 -- a change that's likely linked to a substantial decrease in volunteers last year.

Last year's data show cigarette butts remain the most common item collected along the shore, with more than 50,000 reported in 2011 compared to about 35,000 five years ago.

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Butt out  

Would a $100 fine and community service time stop you from flicking your cigarette butt out of your car window? Henrico Del. Joseph Morrissey, D-47th, thinks so.

For the second year, Morrissey has proposed to include cigarettes in an established bill prohibiting litter on public property or private property without consent. Any violator would be required to perform community service in litter activities and pay a $100 penalty to the Litter Control and Recycling Fund.

“The biggest pollutant in the Chesapeake Bay area is cigarette butts,” Morrissey said. “Consider an Olympic size swimming pool. Imagine eight of them filled to the brim with cigarette butts. That is what is flowing into the Chesapeake Bay. A lot of people who litter cigarettes don’t even think that they are doing anything wrong.”

Although the courts of justice criminal sub-committee tabled the bill, HB114, on Monday by a voice vote, Morrissey said that he would try again to snuff his pet peeve during the 2013 Assembly.

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Litter bugs in court after dropping cigarette butts in Gillingham and Chatham 

A bargain hunter who dropped a cigarette end has landed a fine and court costs of almost £400.

Maurice Kimber, of Canterbury Street, Gillingham, was spotted by two council officers as he threw the butt on the ground outside the 99p shop on Gillingham High Street.

He was handed a fixed penalty notice for the offence on July 28, last year.

But the 64-year-old did pay the £80 fine so the case went to court yesterday (Monday).

Kimber, who did not appear at the hearing, has been fined £100 by magistrates and was also ordered to pay £286 court costs.

In a separate case held at Medway Magistrates' Court on the same day, Michael Hamilton was fined for throwing a cigarette butt outside Greggs Bakery on Chatham High Street on August 1, last year.

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WEST OCEAN CITY: Flicked butt leads to shoplifting arrest 

WEST OCEAN CITY -- A tossed cigarette butt on Route 50 that ended up hitting a police car led the Worcester County Sheriff's Office to a suspect wanted for shoplifting from the White Marlin Mall.

Around 1 p.m. on Jan. 8, deputies were on the lookout for three people wanted in connection with a reported shoplifting from Carter's clothing store. The suspects were said to be traveling westbound on Route 50 in a black vehicle.

Deputies found the car after the driver, Shannon Ohara Irving, 23, of Frankford, Del., tossed her cigarette out the window. A sheriff's deputy pulled her over when the butt hit his patrol car's windshield.

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Tossing out a cigarette butt could soon cost $100  

Flicking a cigarette butt on the ground could cost you a hundred bucks if a bill proposed in the General Assembly is passed.

You usually don't have to walk far to find a cigarette butt on the sidewalk.

Right now littering in general is against the law. Richmond Delegate Joe Morrissey wants to change that. He's proposing a bill that explicitly outlaws littering cigarette butts.

"It's disgraceful," Morrissey said. "It's terrible and anything we can do to stop it, we ought to."

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No butts for firefighters  

THERE'S no butts about the Bilinga Fire Station's opinion on cigarettes flicked from car windows.

"It can be a problem for our personal safety," acting station officer Matt Baxton said.

Acting assistant commissioner South Eastern Region John Gresty said cigarette butt fires endangered fire crews through the combination of reduced visibility, vehicles travelling at high speed and volumes of traffic.

"There is also the danger of reduced visibility," Mr Gresty said.

"Lit cigarette butts can smoulder amongst the mulch and scrub on median strips and highway shoulders, giving off a lot of smoke, which can be very dangerous for highway traffic."

Mr Baxton said the complications arising from such simple and small fires held the potential for disaster.

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• Discarded smokes in Paris to bring fine 

City authorities in Paris say smokers who discard their cigarette butts on city streets could be fined $45 under a plan to cut litter in the City of Lights.

The number of discarded cigarette butts has increased as smokers have taken to puffing outdoors following a ban on indoor smoking instituted in 2008, The Local reported Wednesday.

About 315 tons of cigarette butts, or megots as they are known in French, are collected each year, authorities said.

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Cape Town drivers told 'don't flick butts'  

Smoking drivers will have to watch their butts in South Africa's tourist drawcard Cape Town after a new hotline was launched for motorists to report those who flick cigarette ends out the window.

AFP - Smoking drivers will have to watch their butts in South Africa's tourist drawcard Cape Town after a new hotline was launched for motorists to report those who flick cigarette ends out the window.

"We are getting quite a lot of calls on the butt line," said an operator who answered the hotline on Wednesday.

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