City centre environmental wardens have been encouraging shoppers on Rose Street to dispose of their cigarette butts in a clean way by handing out free ‘mini bins’ over the last few days.
The campaign is the first in a series of anti-litter initiatives which will take place across the city – making Edinburgh a clean and beautiful city to live and work in.
Ten tonnes of litter is dropped in the city centre every week and smokers’ litter is one of the top gripes of city residents and businesses.
The new ‘mini bins’ will encourage people to dispose of matches, cigarette ends and packets properly rather than throwing them onto the street.
And local businesses have also joined the Council scheme by displaying posters and encouraging customers to use bins rather than throwing away cigarettes onto the ground as they walk into shops and pubs.
Overall, it costs £2.4m a year to clean up all litter in the city centre alone.
Councillor Robert Aldridge, Environmental Leader at the City of Edinburgh Council, said:
“We want the city to be a great environment for people to visit, live and work in and we want to encourage people to make small changes which will have a major impact on the appearance of our streets.
“The vast majority of Edinburgh residents and visitors deserve a big thank you for using litter bins, keeping vigilant and letting us know about graffiti and other litter issues. But we are determined to continue to take the strongest possible action against the irresponsible minority who continue to litter our beautiful city.”
There is a £50.00 fine for anyone caught littering the streets of Edinburgh.
No, it costs 2.4 million to do what they do… which is not the same as picking up all the litter, which they most definitely do not do or anything close. It’s not that it can’t more or less be done: look at German cities, for example, but a clean Edinburgh has never been much of a priority and this the latest initiative will make little difference.
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