New government legislation means that tobacco firms must pay part of the State’s street cleaning bills from now on, reports The Irish Times.

The new legislation was prompted by the EU’s move to cut plastic waste and means that tobacco companies will be liable for some of the country’s multimillion-euro street cleaning bills. Last year, EUR 85 million was spent on street cleaning, of which EUR 36 million alone were used for street cleaning in Dublin. Discarded cigarette butts are the biggest contributors to litter making up half of all rubbish cleaned off streets in Ireland.
From now on, tobacco companies in Ireland will be liable in arrears for part of the clean-up costs, the exact size of the bill will be determined at a later date once enough data has been collected with regard to the contribution of cigarette butts to the litter toll, reports The Irish Times.
The legislative changes were made by Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan in July 2021 to comply with the EU’s single-use plastic directive, which bans disposable plastic products such as straws and which applies to cigarette butts because filters are largely made of plastics.
A statutory company overseen by the Department of the Environment will be established to make sure producers either contribute financially or redesign their products to abide by the directive.
“It forces companies to rethink what they’re putting on the market and the costs involved – if they have to pay for litter clean-ups, if they have to pay for recycling,” said Bernie Kiely, a senior environment official in circular economy materials management. “What you are doing is putting that whole of life cost back on the producers who put it on the market in the first place.