Cigarette butts are a major litter problem downtown, but can anyone stop it?

Hamilton is coming up with a new plan to crack down on cigarette buttslittering the downtown. But one city official says it's nearly impossible to fine smokers who flick their butts around.

You'll have a cigarette smoker that will cross the road to put a recyclable can into the right receptacle, and then flick their butt on the ground.- PeterWobschall, city supervisor of program development

City council's general issues committee voted Wednesday to look into beefing up enforcement on people who toss their butts on the ground. It also wants to create an educational campaign reminding smokers that cigarette butts are litter and belong in receptacles.

It's a problem that maddens downtown residents and business owners, said Cameron Topp, owner of Saigon Soul Food on James Street South. You can only sweep up so many butts with a broom or vacuum truck. They still stick in corners and sidewalk cracks.

"(You) can't get that cigarette wedged in the sidewalk for the last four months until someone reaches down and picks it up," said Topp, who serves on the city's Cleanliness and Security in the Downtown Core Task Force.

"Every cigarette butt is difficult."

The city knows cigarette butts are an issue, said Kelly Barnett, manager of service delivery for licensing and bylaw services. But when bylaw officerstryto ticket violators, there often encounterproblems.

To enforce butt flickers under the solid waste bylaw, officers have to catch the person in action, she said. The city also has a policy of letting people off with a warning at first,so officers would have to catch the same person doing it twice.

That's assuming violators would give a bylaw enforcement officer their names anyway, she said.

Cigarette butts are made of a form of plastic

"There are absolutely challenges in enforcing this bylaw."

Another problem isthat smokers don't realize the butts are made from a form of plastic, explained program supervisor PeterWobschall.

"You'll have a cigarette smoker that will cross the road to put a recyclable can into the right receptacle, and then flick their butt on the ground," he said. "They just don't equate cigarette litter with litter. It's a behavioural thing."

The city is always looking to add more receptacles, he added, but has trouble doing that under the current budget.

Wobschallwill lead the city's effort to find about $35,000 to develop an education campaign. The city will also look at the cost of targeted enforcement measures.