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Parish Council launches anti-cigarette waste campaign for the City

27 October 2021 By adamshanley

Like every city across the country, Durham has its issues of cigarette litter. The City of Durham Parish Council is really pleased to be launching its pocket ashtray campaign to tackle this issue. These pocket ashtrays are light-weight, reusable, biodegradable pouches which allow the user to put out their cigarette safely and cleanly without having to throw this on the ground. These pocket ashtrays are free of charge and can now be collected from most businesses across the City in hotspot areas.

Keeping our public spaces and local community safe, clean and green is very high on the agenda.

More than 70% of streets in the UK are affected by smoking litter, with busy spots like high streets and transport hubs having even more of a problem. That’s why the City of Durham Parish Council is targeting hot spot areas in our city with our pocket ashtrays campaign.

• These pocket ashtrays are a reusable anti-litter device designed to store your cigarette butts until you can dispose of them properly.
• They are a soft lightweight pouch with a fireproof lining to extinguish cigarettes and lock in smoke odours.
• They easily fit into your pocket whilst you’re out and about.
• You can also use these devices to store chewing gum inside them.

Cigarette litter is often time-consuming and expensive to clean-up because of its small size, as well as being unsightly where cigarette butts are allowed to accumulate.

Cigarette-related litter causes significant harm to our environment and to our health.
It may look like cotton, but 98 percent of cigarette filters are made of plastic fibers (cellulose acetate) that are tightly packed together. The plastic fibers in cigarettes are non-biodegradable, meaning they won’t organically break down from living organisms. Littered cigarette butts leach toxic chemicals—such as arsenic and lead, to name a few—into the environment and can contaminate water. The toxic exposure can poison fish, as well as animals who eat cigarette butts.

Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable deaths in England, accounting for nearly 80,000 deaths each year. One in two smokers will die from a smoking-related disease.
Every 15 cigarettes you smoke will cause a mutation in your body; mutations are how cancers start.
If you could see the damage, you’d stop.

Remember: smoking has a very detrimental impact on your health and its always best to try and quit smoking. We have the Quit Smoking helpline number on your pocket ashtray.

The Parish Council is also funding an enhanced neighbourhood warden who is issuing on-the-spot fines of £70 for chucking your cigarette butt on the ground. Please use your pocket ashtrays.

Help us eradicate cigarette-related litter in the city of Durham parish once and for all.

The City of Durham Parish Council is partnering with local businesses to make these available across the city.
If you’d like your own pocket ashtray free of charge If you own a business premises and you feel that your customers could benefit from these pocket ashtrays, get in touch with the City of Durham Parish Council via e-mail on parishclerk@cityofdurham-pc.gov.uk

Find out more about our campaign via our Facebook page and together lets keep the City that wonderful, clean and green place we all love.

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