The City of Montreal is targeting smokers who leave cigarette butts on the street.
Cigarette butts represent 30% of the waste the city picks up. Their toxic residue poisons our environment.
— Ville de Montréal (@MTL_Zoom) May 16, 2019
What do you do when you see someone being "buttheaded"? pic.twitter.com/Tnpoj124XH
The butts make up about a third of all litter on city streets and are also a threat to the environment.
Since 2016, Montreal has placed over 600 ashtrays on poles around the city.
The butts are then recycled.
The campaign is good news for environmental activists.
"When a filter falls on the ground, all the toxins eventually leach into the groundwater with the rain and end up in our rivers," said Vincens Cote, director of the Montreal Society for Environmental Action.
"Only one cigarette butt can pollute up to 500 litres of water and we want to avoid that."
