Montreal distributes 100,000 portable ashtrays to citizens
MISHA WARBANSKI, CUP QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEFto
PHOTO BY ROMER BAUTISTA.
MONTREAL (CUP) — The City of Montreal and a local environmental group want smokers to think twice before throwing their cigarette butts on the ground. To make it easier, they’re distributing 100,000 portable ashtrays.
Branded with the slogan “Save the Earth,” the small plastic pouches are lined with a shiny, flame-retardant material and padded with an odor-eating sponge. They can hold up to seven butts, snap neatly shut and fit in your pocket until you can dump the contents into the next refuse bin.
“You can wash it with a little mild soap inside,” explained Robert Beaulieu, the executive director with the Pointe-aux-Prairies Ecoquartier, the environmental group that partnered with the City for the project.
Some have attributed the increase in discarded cigarette butts to the May 2006 ban on smoking in restaurants, bars and enclosed public spaces. The ban forced many smokers outside, where their remains are now causing an eyesore and, according to Beaulieu, an environmental concern.
“It takes 25 years for a cigarette butt to go back to the earth,” Beaulieu said.
Marcel Tremblay, the man responsible for citizen services with the City of Montreal, said that they have been working with businesses to increase the number of ashtrays and garbage cans outside. He added that all of the new receptacles include ashtrays.
The portable ashtray giveaway is part of a wider strategy from operationmontreal.net, a multi-million dollar project launched by the City to clean up the streets.
Beaulieu said that it’s also about publicizing the message of living green.
“This is a cool environmental way, with an environmental phrase, to show people how to do this stuff and how to do it right. Everybody likes to get involved in an environmental issue, the only problem is people don’t have time and this is a very happy and fast way to do it.”
The ashtrays are available at Access Montreal and borough offices and are being handed out to smokers on the streets until all of the ashtrays have been distributed. Several smokers said that there aren’t enough ashtrays around and thought it was a good idea. Others were less enthusiastic.
Jose Ruiz said that he already uses the regular ashtrays. “I don’t want my city to spend that money. Add extra trash-cans and cigarette holder things. There’s got to be easier ways.”
Others, however, pointed out that cigarette butts litter the ground literally feet from existing garbage cans.
But Marcel Tremblay is adamant the project will work as long as people have the right attitude.
“Do you love your city? You should keep it clean,” he said. “So one of the elements that [destroy]our city are the [cigarette] butts. So we hope that you’ll change your attitude and basically throw it in and get rid of it where you normally should get rid of it.”
Manufactured in China, each portable ashtray cost the City 40 cents, for a total of $40,000 spent on the project.
