By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
The Seoul Metropolitan Government collected over 8 billion won ($8.5 million) in fines for cigarette butt littering last year.
The city government introduced stricter regulations for littering with cigarette butts early last year to make the city cleaner. In 2006, the city government collected 870 million won in fines for 14,000 violations.
Under the new regulations, those disposing of cigarette butts on the street will be given a maximum fine of 50,000 won, though rules for each district differ.
Gangnam recorded the largest number of cases in all the 25 districts in the city, with more than 75,000 violations, and raking in 3.4 billion won in fines.
``The very fact that Gangnam had the highest number of violations does not mean that it was the dirtiest place in the city,'' Cha Seung-cheol, a city official, said. ``We encouraged all the districts to crack down on cigarette disposal, but each has their own system and teams.''
Last May, they found an average of 70 cigarette butts in selected sample areas but the number dropped to 25 at the end of the year, Cha said.
``The city government will encourage all districts to bolster crackdown teams,'' Cha said.
The city will also increase the number of trashcans in the city to tackle complaints that the lack of such amenities is the reason why people continue to litter.
As of last July, there were about 3,700 trashcans in the capital but the city government plans to increase the number to 5,900.
Seoul City started reducing the number of dustbins in 1995, following the government's new garbage policy that required citizens to buy authorized plastic bags to dispose of their garbage. Fear of the bins being used for terrorist bombs was also a factor.
There were over 9,000 public trashcans in the city up until 1994.