Chinese officials in the central city of Xianyang thought that they had a simple means of solving the problem of cigarette butts on the streets: offer residents money for each butt collected and turned in as part of its effort to win the “National Clean City” award. After all, they were offering only 5 fen (less than a penny) for each cigarette butt. That was before residents sent in over 7 million butts and demanded payment.
Now the officials are balking at paying out more money after already forking over $50,000 for butts. Officials accuse residents of emptying cafe ashtrays and other sources for their butts.
Source: CSMonitor
Ah beloved city managers invoke heaven but now reside in hell. Isn’t that the way with all government schemes?
I would have a silver dime….
Whose the butt of the joke now?
Who’s
damn decaff
Even wealthy countries have to run on budgets. Couldn’t they manipulate their currency to ensure payment… They do that with the rest of the world.
It seems like the problem might be that there’s no way to tell where a cigarette butt comes from. If they’re the only place putting a bounty on them, people may be collecting them from all the surrounding cities as well.
This is too funny on so many different levels …
Unintended consequences?
The more you smoke the more money you make!
What about the butts from cigarettes residents smoke themselves?
I’d say the idea is good, but the bill should be paid by the tobacco companies. That may increase the prices slightly, but then the smokers can get their money back by selling their butts. It would be a kind of deposit.
A nickle a butt paid by Big Tobacco.
Hmmm. I like it, guilhem. Good idea. However, it would only make cigarettes go up a dollar per pack unless the legislation prohibited passing the cost on to the consumer.