Now those who smoke on the beach will pay the lack by collecting cigarette butts

Each cigarette butt contains up to 400 toxic substances and takes up to 10 years to degrade. In fact, they pollute the sea as much as plastics do. Therefore, in Chile it will be prohibited to smoke on beaches, rivers and lakes, after the law that was dispatched by Congress is enacted and that penalizes with the payment of up to $ 217,768 of fine or the work of collecting precisely these cigarette butts as a community service. Along with the dispatch of the law, it was reported that the rule also does not allow smoking within a strip of 80 meters wide measured from the highest tide line of the coast of the coast and the coastal fiscal lands up to a distance of 80 meters measured from where the riverbank begins. As the project seeks to eliminate cigarette butts as waste from the ground, the law adds that this element cannot be thrown away on public roads, patios or outdoor places. It adds that in the sites, except those that cannot be smoked, whether or not they have patios or outdoor spaces, they must install ashtrays, containers or receptacles intended for the deposit of filters, cigarette butts and cigarette ashes. The same must also happen in its accesses, since since the law of smoking area was implemented, the entrances to restaurants and bars have been filled with smokers. Those in charge of supervising the new law will be the maritime, fluvial and lacustrine police and, in case of any infraction, it must be reported to the judge. It also stipulates that anyone may report non-compliance. As explained by Senator Ximena Ordenes, the main difference in the processing of the law was when the Senate rejected a provision that indicated that filters and cigarette butts made in the country, should be made with biodegradable material, this because it considers that this would give the feeling that they are harmless.

Original source in Spanish