Spain: According to new environmental regulations in Spain, tobacco manufacturers will be responsible for the costs associated with cleaning up millions of cigarette butts.
Spain has taken drastic steps to cut the cost of cleaning up discarded butts in response to a European Union directive aimed at reducing pollution from single-use plastics. Tobacco corporations might also be forced to foot the bill for the installation of public receptacles in an attempt to convince users not to throw away their cigarette butts, as per the new regulation.
According to the statement, “Spain’s administration has yet to calculate how much tobacco companies will have to pay to compensate for the clean-up costs borne by local authorities, but one study suggests the amount could run into hundreds of millions of euros annually.”
Even though there are many smokers, especially among young people, the general population favours tighter regulations on smoking in public areas. A study by the family medicine association observed that, 72 percent of people support a ban on smoking in restaurants and bar terraces.
Cigarette butts, which are reported to be dumped into the ocean in quantities of 5 billion, are the most prevalent source of marine pollution, even more so than plastic bags and bottles. 500 Spanish beaches have been declared smoke-free in the interest of public health and to reduce the number of butts that end up in the ocean. Barcelona outlawed smoking on all the city’s 10 beaches last year.
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