Paris battles cigarette butts with new fine _ but will $76 be enough of a deterrent?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - This Tuesday Dec. 4, 2012 file photo shows a symbolic cigarette butt setting up inside Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris, France as part of a publicity campaign against rudeness by Paris's public transport authority. The city of Paris, littered with 350 tons of cigarette butts each year, is striking back at smokers with a new 68-euro ($76) fine. Starting Thursday, anyone caught flicking their butt onto the sidewalk should be ticketed. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere, File) (The Associated Press)
The city of Paris, littered with 350 tons of cigarette butts each year, is striking back at smokers with a new 68-euro ($76) fine.
Starting Thursday, anyone caught flicking their butt onto the sidewalk should be ticketed. City hall is calling on all businesses to help enforce the rule — "to amplify the fight against this daily incivility," and authorities have installed 30,000 new garbage bins this year with built-in ashtrays.
Butts not only cause "visual pollution," city hall said in a statement, but also contain toxic products that could spread into soil and water.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Smoking has been banned in French public buildings, restaurants and bars since 2008, but nearly 30 percent of French people still smoke regularly.