The Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association has launched a new pilot project to help reduce the number of cigarette butts on the ground.
The DWBIA has installed six new cigarette disposal bins between the 100 and 600-blocks of Ouellette Avenue where smokers can dispose their cigarette butts but also answer an interactive question on various light-hearted topics.
BIA chair Chris MacLeod says the program is part of the BIA's environmental initiative aimed at keeping downtown streets cleaner and more welcoming.
He says similar bins can also be found in Chicago and Boston.
MacLeod says cigarette butts are the largest litter item in most downtown cores.
"The BIA and the city spend thousands of dollars every year to collect cigarette butts and other trash and litter from our downtown core and so as part of the BIAs initiatives to improve beautification and improve our downtown core, we came up what we think is a really cool idea," says MacLeod.
He says instead of smokers throwing their cigarette butts on the ground, the BIA is asking them to put it on one of the sides of the disposal bin.
"You're going to see them in six different locations, part of our initial pilot project downtown where it's a great way to dispose of your cigarette butts instead of putting them on the ground thus reducing litter in our downtown core but the fun part is that at each box you have an opportunity to vote for an either or," he says.
DWBIA chair Chris MacLeod and ward 3 city councillor Renaldo Agostino outside of the Loose Goose on Ouellette Avenue where a bin has been installed, December 7, 2023 (Photo by AM800's Rob Hindi)
MacLeod says it's a six-month pilot program.
"We try to pick locations where people are obviously congregating to smoke right, so we picked locations outside of bars and restaurants," says MacLeod. "So here at the Loose Goose, at Lefty's, in front of Bull & Barrel, in front of Pizza Pizza so those locations where we see the most cigarette butt litter on the ground."
MacLeod says the BIA hopes to install more disposal bins after the six-month pilot program.
He says the bins are roughly $600 each and are from a company out of the United Kingdom.