Bin the Habit call as litter and health campaign is launched

The NHS and the city council have teamed up to launch Bin the Habit, a litter awareness campaign being piloted around Hull Royal Infirmary and other parts of the city.

Hospital security guards will be patrolling the grounds issuing advice about littering to smokers, while the council's community wardens will be carrying out similar work in other areas.

Anyone caught discarding a cigarette end will be asked to pick it up and warned they could be fined 75 for repeating the offence.

They will also be given a free "stubbie" – a specially designed container for collecting cigarette ends – and if they are interested in quitting smoking, given information on how they can access the stop smoking service.

Scilla Smith, chairman at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We are very pleased to be a part of this campaign. Three years ago we took the decision to make our hospitals smoke-free zones.

"This has helped to reduce the number of smokers on our sites but we know that lots of people ignore our request not to smoke, which can make certain areas very unpleasant for non-smokers. Bin the Habit helps us to get the message across to smokers in a different way.

"We have to sweep up an enormous amount of smoking-related litter every week simply because people don't regard cigarette ends as litter. We hope that this campaign might change people's attitudes."