Lack of Cigarette Bins Outside Stations

[contrex]

In the absence of bins and I always try and use a drain for disposal.

The week after I got charged £70, a colleague was charged the same for doing it right outside our office in central Bristol, and he was most indignant as he had 'made to sure to get it down the drain'.

 

[yorkie]

A lot of the Stations I use regularly (Falkirk Grahamston, Uphall, Edinburgh Park and Falkirk High) provide no such facilities.

Given stations do not permit smoking, and no-one should behave antisocially at the entrances, this is unsurprising.

As a consequence the perimeter of the entry is festooned with discarded butts resulting in an eyesore.

This is a consequence of a correlation between people who smoke and people who have a low intelligence and/or have a disregard for other people and their environment.

I am not in any way suggesting that everyone who smokes is unintelligent and/or has a poor attitude towards others and their environment, but there is surely a correlation there; the former has been the subject of studies (see below for some links; plenty more are available), while the latter is just obvious common sense!

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022399912000918

Lower childhood IQ was associated with a higher risk of becoming a smoker and continuing to smoke in late life, and with reduced lung function (FEV1) in late life. Current smokers scored significantly lower than ex-smokers and never smokers on tests of age 70 IQ, general cognitive ability, and processing speed...

https://www.reuters.com/article/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/are-non-smokers-smarter-than-smokers-idUSTRE61M3UQ/

Cigarette smokers have lower IQs than non-smokers, and the more a person smokes, the lower their IQ, a study in over 20,000 Israeli military recruits suggests.
Young men who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day or more had IQ scores 7.5 points lower than non-smokers, Dr. Mark Weiser of Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer and his colleagues found....

https://record.umich.edu/articles/tobacco-use-associated-with-dulled-thinking-lower-iq/

While the researchers confirmed previous findings that alcoholism is associated with thinking problems and lower IQ, their analysis also revealed that long-term smoking is, too....

The counter part being smokers could obtain for a very modest price (less than €10) a pocket sealed ashtray which smokers could fill with cigarette butts and ideally take home with them - meaning only their waste bin ends up reeking of cigarettes.

Why cannot the same approach be adopted? Ban anyone dropping a cigarette butt anywhere in a public place in the UK and expect smokers to take their mess home or use a litter bin.

Sounds a good idea to me!

 

[Butts]

The week after I got charged £70, a colleague was charged the same for doing it right outside our office in central Bristol, and he was most indignant as he had 'made to sure to get it down the drain'.

How could they prove he did it ?

Did they take a photo and catch him in the act ?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Nov 2025 ==

Given stations do not permit smoking, and no-one should behave antisocially at the entrances, this is unsurprising.


This is a consequence of a correlation between people who smoke and people who have a low intelligence and/or have a disregard for other people and their environment.

I am not in any way suggesting that everyone who smokes is unintelligent and/or has a poor attitude towards others and their environment, but there is surely a correlation there; the former has been the subject of studies (see below for some links; plenty more are available), while the latter is just obvious common sense!

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022399912000918

https://www.reuters.com/article/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/are-non-smokers-smarter-than-smokers-idUSTRE61M3UQ/

https://record.umich.edu/articles/tobacco-use-associated-with-dulled-thinking-lower-iq/

Sounds a good idea to me!

How is it going to be enforced and by whom ?

As long as it is consistent and applied equally at night as well as during the day I wouldn't have a problem with it.

 

[Bletchleyite]

How could they prove he did it ?

Did they take a photo and catch him in the act ?

They use body cams to record footage of people dropping litter, yes. And good that they do; there can never be any excuse for doing so.

 

[styles]

For many years, once the snow melted, the post ski season clear up in ski resorts typically revealed thousands of fag butts mostly dropped below ski lifts shortly before the arrival area. This required hundreds of hours work by local volunteers every year for every chairlift just to clear this unnecessary mess.

Eventually more and more ski resorts got fed up and rather than banning smoking they simply banned anyone dropping a cigarette butt anywhere within the ski area except at designated ashtrays mostly placed adjacent to lift arrivals areas. (Some seasonal workers smoke - a lot).

The counter part being smokers could obtain for a very modest price (less than €10) a pocket sealed ashtray which smokers could fill with cigarette butts and ideally take home with them - meaning only their waste bin ends up reeking of cigarettes.

Why cannot the same approach be adopted? Ban anyone dropping a cigarette butt anywhere in a public place in the UK and expect smokers to take their mess home or use a litter bin.

Without wanting to drift too off topic - something similar happens in the Cairngorms, but for poo.

We allow 'wild camping' in Scotland without landowner permission, subject to a sensible access code. People are also free to poo outdoors. It used to be somewhat common to bury the poo then mark it with a stick.

In the Cairngorms however, a lot of people are frequenting the same area and pooing in the same area. In winter the poo doesn't biodegrade - it freezes in the snow. Then affects deer and other wildlife, as well as being unpleasant for other human visitors.

So the National Park Authority came up with the 'Snow White' project. At the ranger station at the ski resort you can pick up a poo box and poo bags. When you finish your trip the poo bags go down a chute for disposal and the boxes disinfected and washed for reuse.

It's been a pretty successful project.

The thing that gets me about cigarette smoking though is - everybody already has a container to put their butts in. Either the cigarette packet the cigarette came out of, or a tobacco tin if hand rolling, etc. If I don't have a bin nearby, my ends go back into the tin until I do. It's not hard.

 

[contrex]

How could they prove he did it ?

Did they take a photo and catch him in the act ?

Bristol, along with lots of other places, has litter wardens ('Environmental Enforcement Officers') wearing body cameras and, as far as I know, they only issue a fixed-penalty notice when they have the evidential footage which would be used in the Mags Court if the miscreant doesn't pay up. They can get you for dropping litter on the street or from a car, including chewing gum and cigarette butts; graffiti; painting or damaging a tree or road sign; flyposting; flytipping; nuisance parking; not putting your domestic or commercial waste out properly; breach of a Community Protection Notice; breach of Public Space Protection Orders, such as not clearing up your dogs' mess, not keeping your dog under control, taking a dog into an excluded area, such as an enclosed children's play area, drinking in a no-drinking area.

The blokes who nabbed me and my colleague made it clear they had footage, and that it would be deleted if the penalty was paid (£100, reduced to £70 if paid within 10 days, but now £150 & £75).

 

[D1511]

If you write to David Mitchell nicely*, he'll send you a little lined smell proof pouch to put your fag butts in, and then no-one else has the unpleasant job of dealing with them afterwards except you......which I suspect is probably the reason there aren't more fag bins around. Homeless people seem relatively keen to empty them, but not many others are......

* Not David Mitchell personally, but the PO Box of the KBT campaign 'Bin your Butts'

 

[Butts]

Bristol, and lots of other places, has litter wardens ('Environmental Enforcement Officers') wearing body cameras and, as far as I know, they only issue a fixed-penalty notice when they have the evidential footage which would be used in the Mags Court if the miscreant doesn't pay up. They can get you for dropping litter on the street or from a car, including chewing gum and cigarette butts; graffiti; painting or damaging a tree or road sign; flyposting; flytipping; nuisance parking; not putting your domestic or commercial waste out properly; breach of a Community Protection Notice; breach of Public Space Protection Orders, such as not clearing up your dogs' mess, not keeping your dog under control, taking a dog into an excluded area, such as an enclosed children's play area, drinking in a no-drinking area.

The blokes who nabbed me and my colleague made it clear they had footage, and that it would be deleted if the penalty was paid (£100, reduced to £70 if paid within 10 days, but now £150 & £75).

Are these Environmental Enforcement Officers about when the Pubs and Clubs throw out ?

Talking of which if someone did a technicolour yawn on the pavement would that be an offence ?

Can I just add that I never throw a butt on the ground. I would take the head off and put ti in a bin or as I said down a drain.

Does ash constitute littering - ie when you tap it off as you smoke ?

 

[contrex]

Are these Environmental Enforcement Officers about when the Pubs and Clubs throw out ?

Talking of which if someone did a technicolour yawn on the pavement would that be an offence ?

Can I just add that I never throw a butt on the ground. I would take the head off and put ti in a bin or as I said down a drain.

Does ash constitute littering - ie when you tap it off as you smoke ?

1. Yes, and they can call for police backup. 2. I doubt it. 3. Drains count as littering and you can get done for it. I don't know about ash in Bristol, but it is in Sandwell, in the West Midlands. I would think that elsewhere, any goading, 'taking the p*ss', type of discarding could get a person written up, especially if there is bodycam evidence.

The council that adopted a Singapore-style stance on litter

Kevin Rawlinson visits Sandwell, where flicking ash on pavement is a fining offence

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Butts]

1. Yes, and they can call for police backup. 2. I doubt it. 3. Drains count as littering and you can get done for it. I don't know about ash in Bristol, but it is an Sandwell, in the West Midlands.

The council that adopted a Singapore-style stance on litter

Kevin Rawlinson visits Sandwell, where flicking ash on pavement is a fining offence

www.independent.co.uk

Not sure if the Sandwell Council diktat is in force as that article is 15 Years old ?

Ironically I am a frequent visitor and used to live in Cradley Heath.

I was once admonished at Sandwell & Dudley Station for having a cigarette on the concourse outside (only a year or two back).

This was an off duty staff member.

 

[DarloRich]

It is a dirty habit and wants stamping out. Same as littering.

 

[1D54]

Would suggest special sealed rooms fitted with filters on the ventilation so none of the vile smelling pollution ever enters the atmosphere.

There was a bar at Brussels Midi on the concourse a few years ago with total glass surrounds that was like that and on the German theme there were always smokers at the end of the Eurostar platforms where people congregated for a final drag before departure to London.

 

[Trackman]

Didnt we have someone post on these forums about being fined outside a station as they said they were still on railway property?

 

[bleeder4]

Given stations do not permit smoking, and no-one should behave antisocially at the entrances, this is unsurprising.


This is a consequence of a correlation between people who smoke and people who have a low intelligence and/or have a disregard for other people and their environment.

I am not in any way suggesting that everyone who smokes is unintelligent and/or has a poor attitude towards others and their environment, but there is surely a correlation there; the former has been the subject of studies (see below for some links; plenty more are available), while the latter is just obvious common sense!

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022399912000918

https://www.reuters.com/article/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/are-non-smokers-smarter-than-smokers-idUSTRE61M3UQ/

https://record.umich.edu/articles/tobacco-use-associated-with-dulled-thinking-lower-iq/

Sounds a good idea to me!

Hopefully someone will do the same studies for vaping. I can't find any at the moment. I'm convinced that, because vaping is still so new, there are long-term downsides to it that we just don't know about yet.

 

[styles]

Hopefully someone will do the same studies for vaping. I can't find any at the moment. I'm convinced that, because vaping is still so new, there are long-term downsides to it that we just don't know about yet.

Part of the issue with vaping is that it's relatively new compared to smoking tobacco. To get the most meaningful results on the impact of vaping will require longitudinal studies going on for a long time.

I'm almost no doubt that vaping will be better than 'traditional' smoking, but still harmful. Moving cigarette smokers to vaping makes sense, but we certainly wouldn't encouraging taking up vaping otherwise.

As for intelligence, it may become more blurred. Given vaping is almost certainly better than smoking cigarettes, the decision to vape is less objectively unhealthy than the decision to smoke cigarettes. There's also the issue of young people being more impressionable, particularly with the bright colours etc, and so more children taking it up. Lastly I expect the research to be muddled by the likely notion that more intelligent people are more likely to switch from tobacco to vaping than the average smoker. Basically I expect it to actually be quite a complicated to study.

 

[The exile]

Didnt we have someone post on these forums about being fined outside a station as they said they were still on railway property?

It will surely vary from station to station - as I’m sure a couple of residents of Altnabreac would be the first to point out!!!!

 

[styles]

It will surely vary from station to station - as I’m sure a couple of residents of Altnabreac would be the first to point out!!!!

Well they've got CCTV covering the platforms (which I suspect may actually be unlawful/non-DPA compliant, but that's the least of the concerns).

In any case they could certainly capture people smoking at the station.

Mind you, they'd probably end up in a land dispute over who owns the 30cm behind the concrete part of the platform or something.

They're in court tomorrow for a civil case with EE, so never know, things may change...

 

[contrex]

Not sure if the Sandwell Council diktat is in force as that article is 15 Years old ?

Ironically I am a frequent visitor and used to live in Cradley Heath.

I was once admonished at Sandwell & Dudley Station for having a cigarette on the concourse outside (only a year or two back).

This was an off duty staff member.

I wouldn't call it a 'diktat' (we're not in Nazi Germany). I'd call it a reasonable move to discourage a filthy habit.

 

[uglymonkey]

People used to put bombs in any form of waste container/bin so they were all removed at some point ( IRA,ISIS etc.)

 

[Yew]

Putting bins where people need them is a very sensible idea, whether for cigarettes or other rubbish, and should be given proper consideration.