today the Taipei Times reports:
EPA may require smokers to carry personal ashtrays
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday smokers may be required to carry personal portable ashtrays to dispose of their cigarette butts before the end of the year.
Cigarettes are not only harmful to health, they also pollute the environment, an official said.
Citing a “conservative” estimate, Yuan Shaw-ying (袁紹英), director-general of the EPA's Department of Environmental Sanitation and Toxic Substance Management, said that more than 10 billion cigarette butts litter the nation's streets, parks and gutters each year. Such a large number is a product of the nation's high number of smokers, with about 18 percent of Taiwanese — or 4.2 million people — being regular smokers, Yuan said.
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