Woking asks smokers to keep their BUTTsOUT

21 January 2003

A safe new way of preventing cigarette litter on streets is being offered to smokers in Woking.

In a UK first, Woking Borough Council has joined forces with BUTTsOUT, manufacturers of the BUTTsOUT personal ashtray®, to promote an easy practical way for smokers to bin their cigarette butts.

The pocket sized ashtrays, made of fire resistant plastic, come complete with a snap-shut lid which keeps in smoke and smell and allows smokers to empty their butts safely in a bin later either at home or in the office. They are available in a range of colours and can be clipped on to a belt or bag.

Cigarette butts make up 40% of all street litter. Costly to clear up and harmful to the environment, it is estimated each butt contains over 4,000 chemicals including poisons such as hydrogen cyanide and arsenic.

Woking Borough is the first UK Council to actively support the BUTTsOUT scheme with a one week Borough-wide promotion starting on Saturday 25th January to provide the BUTTsOUT personal ashtray® free to local residents and business employees, to encourage smokers to be more considerate about disposing their cigarette butts. The initiative was first put forward as a motion to the Council by Cllr David Bittleston.

"Every day in Woking Borough alone, 18,500 people smoke around ¼ million cigarettes, many of which end up on pavements, in parks and outside office buildings," says Cllr Jim Armitage, Leader of the Council's Executive. "We're hoping this scheme will make local smokers think seriously about changing their habits for good to help reduce the damage to the environment and the cost to council tax payers when butts have to be cleaned up from our streets."

Retailing at £2 each, the BUTTsOUT personal ashtrays are also on sale at selected newsagents and grocery stores across Woking. Woking Borough Council is supporting the BUTTsOUT initiative as part of its ongoing aim to provide a clean and safe environment. Woking is the only local authority ever granted a Queen's Award for Enterprise – it was given the award in 2001 for its pioneering work in sustainable environmental projects. For more information about this and other green schemes visit other parts of the Woking website.