preventie-rokengerelateerd-zwerfafval

Residents are fined £75 by a team of six street wardens if they are caught dropping litter.
Dave McManus, the head of street care in the Essex town, said: “It’s not about making profits.
We don’t hide around street corners, like wheel-clampers. It’s about education.” Other councils
are expected to follow this example. However, pro-smoking groups said that councils should give
a ‘period of grace’ to smokers once the ban arrives.
Simon Clark, of Forest, (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) said:
“It is very unfair to target smokers for littering as the same time as the ban comes in.
“We don’t condone littering, but it is a national problem. It’s not just about cigarette butts,
it’s about drinks cans, fast-food cartons and chewing gum. “If the fines are used as a blunt
weapon with which to beat smokers we will resist them.”
Sales of personal ashtrays that can be slipped into a pocket are expected to take off following the
ban. But there is some confusion about who is responsible for litter outside pubs. A landlord has
to get permission from a county council before he can put a bin on the street outside his pub, but
the local council can fine the pub if it is found causing street litter. Mr McManus admitted: “You
do get the impression that it is being made very difficult to implement.”
The fines are the last in a long line of anti-smoking measures that the Government has
brought in. These range from increases in tobacco duty to banning cigarette advertising.
Though the number of smokers has fallen from 28 per cent of the adult population in 1998,
to 24 per cent, this is well short of Government’s 21 per cent target. During the Second World
War 70 per cent of adults were smokers.
Het doel is geen peuken op straat.
Dit kan alleen bereikt worden als het weggooigedrag van
rokers in positieve zin beïnvloed wordt.
30 • Gids preventie rokengerelateerd zwerfafval bij de invoering van het rookverbod in de horeca