WELCOME SOLACE LATE JACK LAYTON’S GRANDCHILD MAKES HER DEBUT {page 4} GET A CLOONEY WILL THIS BE GORGEOUS GEORGE’S GOLDEN YEAR? {page 9}
SHUTOUT GOALIE SHINES IN BRONZE MEDAL WIN {page 14}
WINNIPEG
Weekend, Januar y 6-8, 2012 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
Buttheads litter Winnipeg streets
Prez-ing. On
Cigarette butts account for 50% of litter in Canadian city centres One of the biggest culprits: Smokers tossing butts out of cars Winnipeg’s recent balmy weather isn’t revealing only the streets — it’s revealing all the trash underneath the snow. And most of that garbage is coming from smokers tossing their butts. “Cigarette butts are definitely one of the biggest and peskiest litter issues out there because they’re so small,” said Jennifer Verch, a spokesperson with Downtown BIZ. “We do have our sidewalk cleaning machines … but when the butts are going into corners and grassy areas, they can be really difficult to pick up.” The organization started a campaign to curb smokers from tossing their butts onto the street in 2008, installing 27 receptacles in smoking hot spots throughout the downtown. Since then, more receptacles — including 15 last year alone —have been installed, but the butts continue to pile up, said Verch.
“They might be small when you’re throwing them on the ground, but the butts really add up.” Although dropped butts are eventually swept up by members of the Downtown BIZ Metro Enviro-Team, Verch says using the receptacles means the crew can concentrate on other problems. She also points out the butts aren’t as harmless as they might seem to smokers. “They take a long time to decompose, they can contaminate the waterways with the chemicals in them and they can be harmful to animals if they eat them,” she said. “There’s different problems with them, it’s not that they’re just unsightly.” SHANE GIBSON
$180
125/day SHANE GIBSON/FOR METRO
Downtown BIZ crews pick up 125 cigarette butts on every downtown street every day. That amounts to 45,000 per street per year. That’s a lot of smokes.
The cigarette ash receptacles cost $180 and Downtown BIZ will split the cost of installation with any business that wants one.
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Garth Buchko, right, talks to media at a press conference Thursday. JOHN WOODS/FOR METRO
Off the air and into the Blue Garth Buchko, former GM of several local radio stations, is now the CEO and president of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Interim CEO Ossama AbouZeid will continue with the club as the stadium project manager, the position he held before taking on the CEO role. For more coverage, see page 13.
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