CBD lobby group urges more action on cigarette littering

Smokers dropping cigarette butts in the streets of Melbourne is an ever-present issue.

Last month, the City of Melbourne collected $71,000 in fines while over the last 12 months, 1,100 infringements were issued.

Jenny Eltham is the president of the CBD resident lobby group EastEnders and told Neil Mitchell smokers simply weren’t aware they were breaking the law.

“Our request to the City of Melbourne is to run a campaign to let smokers know that it’s actually an offence to drop cigarette butts,” she said.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of cigarette smokers and generally they don’t know they can be fined.”

She said any potential campaign should be multi-faceted, with both cigarette users and councils involved.

“It should be a two-part campaign,” she said.

“We need to alert smokers that dropping a butt is illegal and then I think councils need to get more people onto the ground to tell people they can be fined.

“You have to let people know.”

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