CIGARETTE END

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29849, 15 June 1962, Page 13

CIGARETTE END

Litter Act Prosecution (Special Crvpdt. N.ZP-A.) LONDON. June 14. A Court would be asked next month to decide if a cigarette end was “litter,” said the “Daily Telegraph." An affirmative answer could make technical offenders of millions of people each day. At Prestwick. Scotland, a holidaymaker has been summoned under the 1958 Litter Act because it is said he threw a cigarette end away. The case is due to be heard next month.

There are about 1000 prosecutions yearly under the Litter Act and Courts have held a wide variety of articles to be “litter." Cigarette ends have not yet been categorised. The act lays down that "organic matter, whether waste, or dead animal, rubble. old metal, glass, china, earthenware, tin. carton, paper, or other rubbish” is litter. “Other rubbish" is tha phrase most invoked when cases are brought. Already it has been held to include brass, bedsteads, pianos, old cars, and election leaflets dropped from a car. The “Daily Telegraph" said: "The attempt to bring a cigarette butt within the meaning of the act may well lead to complaints that it is too stringent. Next on the list might come ash flicked from a cigarette.”