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May the Butt Force be with you.

Motokid

Motokid

New Member
SYDNEY (Reuters) - May the Butt Force be with you.

Sydney, Australia's largest city, has had enough of careless smokers who dispose of their butts in the street.

Coinciding with World No Tobacco Day Wednesday, a team of 30 plain-clothed rangers were prowling Sydney streets as part of an anti-smoking and litter crackdown.

Nicknamed by local media as "Butt Busters" and the "Butt Force," the rangers have been issuing fines of A$60 ($45) for smokers who dump their butts in the streets instead of in designated bins.

The fine jumps to A$200 for smokers who dump lit cigarettes.
Monica Barone, acting chief executive of the harbourside city, said 45 smokers had been fined in the past week for indiscriminate cigarette littering.

She said more than 15,000 butts were discarded daily in the city in 2005, many of which find their way through stormwater drains into world-famous Sydney Harbour.

"The new hardline approach, which we do not apologize for, is designed to reduce millions of cigarette butts that are littered across the city every day to the detriment of our wonderful waterways," Barone said in a statement.

Officials estimate that about 32 billion butts were discarded inappropriately around Australia in 2005.

Some of those caught in the act were taking the fines on the chin, local media said.

"It's a dirty, rotten habit and I should've put it in the bin," the Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted one unidentified puffer as saying.
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Smoking, such a beautiful habit.

Happy June 1st y'all :D
 
That's awesome :D

We also have laws where you can dob in drivers who dump butts out of their car windows. Not only is this littering, but the danger of bushfires from this practice is very real.

What's daft is that NSW still hasn't introduced no smoking in public places as yet. I went out to the bar to watch the rugby last weekend and it was just plain gross. I was sitting in the 'non smoking' section, and the smoke was wafting across the bar. Urghhhh! Some of the other states have, and we had no smoking in public places in Canada. So awesome!
 
Kookamoor said:
That's awesome :D

We also have laws where you can dob in drivers who dump butts out of their car windows....
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I agree. It is a great idea.

The state of Rhode Island used to have a program like that. You could call in the plate number and they'd send the owner a nasty-gram. It was good for all litter, not just butts. Sadly, a fine was not involved.
 
In Scotland we've been smoke-free in public places for a few months now and it's fantastic. Nothing beats a rainy night and passing all the smokers forced outside to shiver as we cross the threshold. Still, being one of the few non-smokers in my group I'm usually the one looking like an anti-social loser when they all head out for a puff and I'm left on my own holding the table.

Still, some sort of butt fine here would be nice too. When I was in Singapore ash was flicked into a small tub rather than let it touch the ground; that's pride in your locale.
 
Stewart said:
Still, being one of the few non-smokers in my group I'm usually the one looking like an anti-social loser when they all head out for a puff and I'm left on my own holding the table.
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Yes, but at least you aren't freezing your rear off when it is raining or sleeting in February.
 
Stewart said:
All the way into April. But, shhh! ;)
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We had a few flurries in April this year. The official last frost day is about April 8, but it was a very cool spring..except for the three days of 95 F that made everyone double check our calendars.
 
abecedarian said:
We had a few flurries in April this year. The official last frost day is about April 8, but it was a very cool spring..except for the three days of 95 F that made everyone double check our calendars.
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I wish it would snow in April here! Our spring has been, as of yet, for the most part, comprised of 80-90 degree heat. We Michiganders are melting! We were not built for this kind of weather! It has also been raining daily for about the past month (nothing new) making the air yucky and humid. There are places in Florida cooler than here :(

As for smoking, to quote my ever-so-eloquent former health teacher: "Butts are gross."
 
Stewart said:
Still, being one of the few non-smokers in my group I'm usually the one looking like an anti-social loser when they all head out for a puff and I'm left on my own holding the table.
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Just look at it as an opportunity to attract people who are too shy to come up to you when you're in a group!
 
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