Hot topics up for discussion with new smoking bins

AIR YOUR view on the burning question of the day and ensure you keep Hinckley litter-free thanks to new Ballot Bins installed in the town.

Two of the receptacles have been installed on a trial basis, on outside the Atkins Building on Lower Bond Street and on towards the top of Castle Street.

The £220 ashtray features an easily changeable sign which has a question and two answers written on with magnetic letters or dry-wipe marker.

The holes for the butts sit underneath each of the answers and smokers vote for their preferred answer by putting their cigarette butt in the appropriate slot.

The litter stacks up behind the clear glass front in two columns, showing which answer is more popular.

Questions can be easily changed by the Ballot Bin owner and can be funny, topical or provocative - whatever works for the local area.

According to the makers smokers find these ashtrays much more engaging than the alternatives and are more likely to use them.

As well as this, independent evaluation shows the Ballot Bin reduces cigarette butt litter by 46 per cent in areas they are deployed.

A Ballot Bin spokesman said: “Tackling litter while posing a question may not seem to go hand-in-hand but in just six weeks, a Ballot Bin ash-tray installed in another town centre street reduced the number of smokers throwing their butts on the floor by 20% per cent and went viral, reaching six million people online.

It has since been replicated across the world.”

If the two pilot bins prove successful Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council will look to buy more of the bins to be placed around the town.

The move is part of a clampdown on litter in the area which saw two smokers prosecuted and fined recently for dropping cigarette butts in the street and then failing to pay a fine issued by street wardens.

Failure to pay fines for littering can eventually spiral to hundreds of pounds if court action leading to costly legal fees as well a and financial penalty levied by the court