School Premieres ‘Ash Mob’ Movie During Cigarette Litter Blitz

A FILM produced to promote a crack down on cigarette litter in Charnwood is being premiered at a special school assembly.

Charnwood College in Loughborough will debut the ‘ash mob’ movie to 75 students as part of Charnwood Borough Council’s award-winning Don’t Muck Around campaign.

The campaign is targeting cigarette litter during a three-month blitz on environmental offences after more than 1,200 cigarette ends were dumped in three Charnwood town centres in just one day.

The ‘ash mob’ movie was made during a publicity stunt to launch the campaign when a small army of ‘human cigarettes’ laid down in Loughborough Town Centre to illustrate the problem of cigarette litter.

The stunt was filmed on CCTV and by local film-maker Richard Bailey and the footage has been turned into the educational movie. The film can be seen on the campaign Facebook page: www.facebook.com/dontmuck, the Council’s homepage: www.charnwood.gov.uk or on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARCGRJkgiVM&feature=plcp

Councillor Jane Hunt, the Council’s Cabinet member for Regulatory Services, said: “The ‘ash mob’ was a brilliant way of launching the campaign and raising awareness of the issue of cigarette litter.

“We have produced a short film which captures the unusual stunt and we are now using that to help raise awareness of the environmental impact of discarded cigarettes and the penalties people could face if they drop litter.

“Although this is a fun way of getting the message across, it is important to remember that cigarette ends are litter and people who drop it can be fined £80.”

The Council is also inviting local businesses to sign a pledge to help reduce cigarette litter by promoting responsible ways of disposing of smoking materials to their customers.

The Don’t Muck Around campaign was launch on September 5 and is now in its second year. It was crowned Britain’s best environmental campaign at the Keep Britain Tidy Network Awards.

If you are a business who wants to sign the pledge, email: cleaner.greener@charnwood.gov.uk

To report any environmental offence, If you know of an offender or want to report an incident, call in confidence on 01509 263151 or email cleaner.greener@charnwood.gov.uk.

Like us on Facebook here Facebook/dontmuck or follow us on Twitter @CharnwoodBC #dontmuck. You can also watch the video