Bin the butt on Market Street
27 May 2011
Smokers now have even less excuse to throw their cigarette butts away, after new litter bins containing ash trays were fitted in Manchester city centre's busiest street.
The 23 new bins are being fitted to Market Street to tackle the large number of discarded cigarette butts found on the street and reduce the amount of time spent collecting this type of litter.
More than 20,000 cigarette butts are thrown away on Market St every year and four tonnes of litter is collected every day from across the city centre, with litter bins emptied up to eight times per day.
Anyone who is seen dropping a cigarette butt will be given a fixed penalty notice, costing £80 or £50 if paid within the first 10 days, and anyone who refuses to pay this fine will be prosecuted.
Councillor Paul Andrews, Manchester City Council's executive member for neighbourhood services, said: "A lot of smokers don't think that discarded cigarette butts count as litter, but in fact, they make up a huge amount of the litter we have to collect from Manchester streets.
"Market Street has been an area where this has been a particular problem, so these new litter bins mean people don't have any excuse for dropping cigarette butts there. They should be warned that we treat this - as well as all forms of littering - extremely seriously."
