A NEW campaign aims to clean up the streets of Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire by encouraging people to take personal responsibility for their litter.

Environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful is particularly targeting smokers who cause a mess by dumping cigarette butts instead of disposing of them properly.

Georgina Massouraki, roadside litter campaign officer at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “Our campaign is a unique opportunity for industry, the public sector, charity and government to all work in partnership and raise awareness of this blight on our environment.

“Disposing of cigarette litter out of a car window, or on the ground when out and about, is deeply habitual yet exceptionally harmful.

“There are no excuses for littering cigarette butts – no ifs, no butts.”

The new campaign, supported by the National Trust for Scotland, recognises that over half of the general public say they have witnessed litter being irresponsibly discarded from a motor vehicle.

Statistics show that smoking-related litter is the most frequently observed type of litter on our streets.

David Barnes, litter and flytipping programme manager for Zero Waste Scotland, said: “We fully support this new partnership campaign to tackle the problem of cigarette litter this summer.

“Discarded cigarette butts are more than a nuisance, they’re a blight on our country and that’s why Zero Waste Scotland has help and support available for litter managers who want to tackle this and wider litter issues on our new online Litter Knowledge Network.

“If you’re out enjoying our beautiful country, encourage people to take responsibility for binning their butts.

“There’s no excuse for dropping cigarette butts.”