Seoul intensifies crackdown on cigarette butt throwers

SEOUL, Jan. 14 (Yonhap) -- The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Wednesday its revenue of fines collected from cigarette butt throwers swelled to over 9 billion won (US$6.9 million) in 2008 from 8 billion won the previous year.

A total of 205,985 persons were caught dumping cigarette butts on Seoul streets
last year, compared with 192,270 violators of the metropolitan government's waste
disposal ordinance, municipal officials said.
The so-called "clean street" ordinance was enacted in 1994, but full-scale
enforcement of the act began only in late 2006, when Gangnam-gu, one of Seoul's
25 autonomous wards, started to crack down on cigarette butt throwers with a fine
of 50,000 won.
Supporters of the crackdown say that streets of Seoul have become apparently
cleaner since the municipal government began to punish the litterers.
Most smokers, however, are raising questions about the real intentions of the
metropolitan government, saying that they have not been properly notified of the
hefty punishment associated with cigarette butts and trash boxes are rare on
downtown streets.
A citizen, identified only by his family name Kim, said after being fined by a
municipal official, "I had unsuccessfully tried to look for a garbage can. So I
threw the cigarette butt on a heap of construction wastes but was caught by an
official."
The metropolitan government is now moving to increase the number of street trash
bins this year.
"A survey shows that people want more trash cans on Seoul streets. We plan to
increase them to 7,600 from 5,000 by the end of this year. By then, there will be
one trash box every 500 meters," said an official.
brk@yna.co.kr
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