Brazil Bans Butts on the Beach in Rio de Janeiro

Source from:  UPI.com 11/08/2013

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second-largest city, has banned butts on the beach -- cigarette butts that is -- as part of a new anti-littering campaign.

As part of its Lixo Zero program, Rio de Janeiro is imposing a $65 fine on people who improperly discard cigarette butts, and those who discard larger waste illegally can be fined as much as $1,300.

Tourists coming to town for the 2014 World Cup should take notice as they will be subject to the same fines as locals.

Some object to the law and call it superficial because it fails to address the city's unregulated and environmentally harmful landfills.

"This law is ridiculous," said Sergio Guerreiro Ribeiro, the president of the Waste to Energy Research Technology Council. "It makes the government look good, [but] it's propaganda."

But others support the anti-littering campaign.

"The government is trying to get the city ready for the World Cup and Olympics, trying to educate people in the city center," said says Alfonso Stefanini, a local environmental consultant and environmental policy gradate student. "People will bring knowledge back to where they live."

Fines imposed through the program will be used to clean up the estimated 9,000 tons of garbage the city handles daily. Enditem