Is that an ashtray in your pocket . . ?

By ALANAH MAY ERIKSEN in Rotorua
Rotorua smoker Emma Lewis believes pocket ashtrays could become a hip new fashion accessory in Rotorua.

The Keep Rotorua Beautiful arm of the Rotorua District Council has imported 4cm-long stainless steel pocket ashtrays from China in an attempt to create a "clean and tidy city".

They are small, sleek and simply slide into your pocket.

Best of all, they stop unsightly cigarette butts from being discarded on the ground or swept away in drainage systems.

Miss Lewis believes they are funky and will definitely help keep Rotorua clean and tidy.

"Sometimes I wrap a butt in a receipt if I'm a bit embarrassed to chuck it on the street," Miss Lewis said while having a cigarette outside Zippy Central cafe yesterday. "These will definitely help."

Lions donated $22,500 to the council in April to help pay for the ashtrays.

Keep Rotorua Beautiful co-ordinator, Christine Findon, found them on the internet.

"They are a very smart little number," she said.

Mrs Findon is distributing them around various bars and cafes in Rotorua's city centre and its suburbs. She hopes giving away the ashtrays will create awareness about the problem Rotorua has with cigarette butts.

"By flicking a cigarette into a gutter it's obviously going to get into the waterways," she said.

"It takes 12 years to break down."

The Rotorua District Council is the first council in New Zealand to apply for, and get, pocket ashtray funding.

This isn't the first time the council has given away ashtrays.

In April, it used part of the Lions donation to purchase 150 cigarette butt bins, now found on the ends of seats around Rotorua and outside various bars.

Mrs Findon said butts being discarded were always going to be a problem with the new smoking ban.

The pocket ashtrays are also available from the City Focus for $2 each.