Toulouse has the record for the number of cigarette butts picked up in just 2 hours, or nearly 300,000 cigarette butts. A report by Christine Bouillot.

It is a very sad record for Toulouse: that of the number of cigarette butts picked up in just 2 hours in several very frequented places of the pink city. Nearly 300,000 cigarette butts thrown away by smokers in Toulouse. An annual operation of the association Field of action which notes that things are not improving. A report by Christine Bouillot.

Florence Ducroquets: “it’s as if we were doing abstraction“smokers

Jérémy quietly smokes his cigarette on a bench in this square near a metro station in Toulouse, a small problem for him: the lack of an ashtray. “Yeah, there aren’t any here, so it’s true that ashtrays are something that is missing a lot“, he declares at the microphone of South Radio.

The main consequence of this lack of ashtrays is that the very frequented places in Toulouse become open ashtrays. A situation, for lack of sufficient street furniture, which worsens from year to year, estimates Florence Ducroquets, president of the Champs d’Actions Association. “As long as there are no ashtrays installed for smokers, because I still remind you thatwe are in Occitanie, it is the region of France where we smoke the most and there is absolutely no street furniture that is designed for the smoker“, she explains,”it’s as if we were ignoring these people“, judge Florence Ducroquets.

Water from the Garonne “is at a level of pollution which is harmful to our health“

This fifth edition of the operation Pick up your butt is unfortunately a success in Toulouse. Almost 300,000 cigarette butts were recovered in just two hours. These butts will not end up in the Garonne, the city’s main drinking water resource. “It passed through the Pyrenees, it is extremely rich water, extremely beneficial for our body.», Explains Florence Ducroquets. “After a few meters, at the end of the Pyrenees, as soon as we arrive at St Gaudens for example, we already have Garonne water which is at a level of pollution which is harmful to our health as it is“, she adds. A cigarette butt contains some 2,500 toxic substances which spread in the water after only 27 minutes.

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