LIFESTYLE

Paris battles cigarette butts with new fine - but will $76 be enough of a deterrent?

The Associated Press Published Wednesday, September 30, 2015 1:02PM EDT Last Updated Wednesday, September 30, 2015 1:53PM EDT

This Tuesday Dec. 4, 2012 file photo shows a symbolic cigarette butt setting up inside Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris, France as part of a publicity campaign against rudeness by Paris's public transport authority. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere, File)

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PARIS -- The city of Paris, littered with 350 tons of cigarette butts each year, is striking back at smokers with a new 68-euro ($76) fine.

Starting Thursday, anyone caught flicking their butt onto the sidewalk should be ticketed. City hall is calling on all businesses to help enforce the rule -- "to amplify the fight against this daily incivility," and authorities have installed 30,000 new garbage bins this year with built-in ashtrays.

Butts not only cause "visual pollution," city hall said in a statement, but also contain toxic products that could spread into soil and water.

Smoking has been banned in French public buildings, restaurants and bars since 2008, but nearly 30 per cent of French people still smoke regularly.