Reducing ashtray bins in crowded places will help people cut down on smoking, Singapore’s Sustainability and Environment Ministry believes.
Senior Minister of State Amy Khor told parliament today that they will move public rubbish bins with mounted ashtrays to places with fewer people to discourage smokers from lighting up and protect non-smokers from secondhand smoke.
Khor did not give further details on where or when this would happen, except to say the ministry was working with relevant agencies on the plan.
“[National Environment Agency] is working with relevant agencies to relocate bins with ashtrays to places with less footfall,” she said, adding that it was also “working to distribute advisories and put up visual reminders to not smoke in prohibited areas.”
Singapore has moved hard to snuff out smoking in recent years, having banned it at more than 30,000 venues including covered walkways and bus stops, according to Khor. The minimum legal smoking age was raised from 20 to 21 last month.
Khor’s latest update on the government’s smoking clampdown came months after she told parliament in October that it would be difficult to bust smokers in their own homes without being “intrusive,” which drew criticism from anti-secondhand smoke activists.
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