Our thanks to Andrew Malkin, Communications Manager at Boston Borough Council for this blog.

ButtBag (2)Supporting a more attractive environment

Market Place shoppers were delighted to pick up the bargain of the day on Wednesday – a FREE gift to help them avoid picking up a £75 littering fine.

Boston Borough Council’s environmental enforcement team, helped by Boston Big Local colleagues, manned a market stall to give away handy reusable pocket or handbag cigarette mini bins. Boston Big Local funded the mini bins as part of its efforts to meet the request of residents to clean up the town’s streets.

Cigarette ends and related discarded litter are some of the most difficult to gather up. But it shouldn’t be thrown down in the first place – cigarette ends are officially litter when thrown down in the street, and anyone caught could face a £75 fixed penalty.

Doreal Parras (50), from Fishtoft, would rather not be a smoker, but admits she has been hooked since she was about ten. She was pleased to accept a free cigarette mini bin and said she was careful about not throwing down cigarette ends because she didn’t want children to pick them up and develop a habit.

She said she had given up smoking before, once for a year, but said it was difficult to quit and stay that way because of the physical and psychological addiction.

“I am a smoker myself, but I would hate for my grandchildren to be smokers,” she said.

The FREE cigarette mini bins are available from the reception desk at the council’s West Street offices.

Cigarette-minbinsPhoto [right]: Doreal Parras receives her free cigarette mini bin from chairman of Boston Big Local Richard Tory.