Downtown Yonge tries a new tactic in the battle against butts

As part of its mission to keep the streets clean, the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area (BIA) has l installed 12 cigarette receptacle ashtrays along both sides of Yonge St. between Gerrard and Dundas.

The receptacles were installed on streetlight poles—owned by the BIA—on Dec. 12. The were located in front of storefronts that have historically had high volumes of traffic or cigarette litter in general.

The BIA’s operations manager Randy Sidhu reports, “As of right now they are typically being emptied out once a week, or on an as-needed basis. Once the weather warms up and the general public takes notice, they will be used more, emptied out more often, and then we will probably start to notice an improvement.”

“On a side note,” Sidhu continues, “we don’t plan on throwing out these cigarette butts. We will actually be sending them to a facility where they will be recycled and used for the production of industrial pellet trays. This is an environmentally-friendly/green approach that our BIA felt quite strongly about.”

“If the results are encouraging, there could be a possibility to expand this program in 2013.”

Contact Sidhu at atrsidhu@downtownyonge.com with feedback.