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A receptacle for disposing of cigarette butts in Cobh of the kind being introduced in Fermoy on a pilot basis to tackle the problem of cigarette-butt littering.

With cigarette butts found to have the greatest negative impact on results in both Cork County Council's Anti Litter Challenge and the 'Fermoy - A Cleaner Town' competition, members of the Tidy Towns committee have put their heads together to come up with a solution.

Chairman of the group, local councillor Noel McCarthy and PRO, Tadhg O'Donovan visited a number of other towns in recent weeks to see how they cope with the problem. In a couple of towns they saw specially designated bins for cigarette butts. "They are of a size that they can be mounted on telephone and ESB poles and wouldn't take up space on pavements," Noel explained, saying that, as such, they are fairly unobtrusive.

"I've been approached by smokers who've told me they'd dispose of their cigarettes properly if there was somewhere to do so," he said. "People don't want to put them in the ordinary rubbish bins on the street."

It was recently revealed that Fermoy stands to lose out on first place in the Council's Anti Litter Challenge due to the high number of cigarette butts littering the paths and streets of the town. In the second round of judging there were over 40 butts found in one area. Just two areas of the town were found to be cigarette-butt and litter free. At the same time the 'Fermoy - A Cleaner Town' initiative counted more than 2,000 butts littering the town.

Following on from the findings, the Tidy Towns chairman and PRO suggested that business people work with the council to install bins for cigarettes outside their premises. With the exception of pubs, who, for the most part, have their own wall-mounted receptacles outside their premises, retailers were't keen on the idea, Noel McCarthy said.

"Someone has to take the initiative so we have decided to do it ourselves," Tadhg O'Donovan said. The units are being costed at present with a view to purchasing and fitting them, initially as a pilot scheme, in high pedestrian traffic areas such as  Patrick Street, MacCurtain Street and Pearse Square. The bins will carry the Fermoy town logo and have the message 'Always Bin Your Butt'.

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