Seoul Collects $6.2 Mil. in Fine-As-You-Throw Scheme
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Seoul City said it has collected 6.3 billion won ($6.2 million) so far this year from smokers caught littering cigarette butts.
Its 25 municipal ward offices have slapped fines on 142,500 smokers during the first eight months of the year. The fine for each violation ranged from between 25,000 and 50,000 won.
Gangnam-gu has garnered the largest amount of fines, 2.5 billion, accounting for 39 percent of the total funds raised, followed by Yongsan-gu with 709 million won, and Jung-gu with 413 million won.
Gangnam-gu Office introduced the ``fine-as-you-throw'' program in January of last year, while the rest of the city has been subject to the program from the end of last year.
The Seoul government and it subordinate offices have doled out more than 25,000 handheld ashtrays. In addition, the city plans to install 4,000 more trashcans in Seoul by the end of next year.
``With fines on cigarette butt littering, we've seen violations drop 20 percent from a year earlier,'' a city official said.
In 2007, a total of 201,247 cases of people littering cigarettes was recorded, collecting 8.53 billion won in fines.