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Paris Opens Its First Cigarette Butt-Free Street

undefined undefined 21 septembre 2026 undefined 17h00

The Editor

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Every day, hundreds of thousands of cigarette butts are tossed on the ground in the streets of the capital. A catastrophic situation for the planet, which the City of Paris wanted to address by renaming a street in the 2nd arrondissement "Cigarette Butt-Free Street," the first of its kind in the capital. An awareness campaign that couldn't be more necessary.

Last Friday, while passing through central Paris, you probably noticed that one of the capital's busiest shopping streets had changed its name. Indeed, for an entire day, the City transformed Rue Montorgueil, famous for its abundance of craftspeople and restaurants, into the "Rue Sans mégots" (Butt-Free Street). A clever way to tackle a sensitive issue: the lack of civility among many Parisian smokers.


A far too common habit

2 billion. That's the absolutely staggering number of cigarette butts thrown into the streets of the capital each year. That's between 4 and 5 million per day. Yes, yes, you read that right—Parisians are clearly far messier than we'd like to think. A practice that represents

astronomical costs, both for the planet — a cigarette butt takes an average of 12 years to decompose, while releasing roughly 4,000 chemical substances — and for the city, since the local authority spends approximately 10 million euros each year to combat this senseless practice. Because you'll find trash cans everywhere on the streets of the capital and it won't cost you any more to walk to one of them, quite the opposite. As a reminder, throwing a cigarette butt is subject to a fine of 135€, which can go up to 750€!


More or Less Drastic Measures

To try to raise awareness among Paris residents, the city hall decided to launch an awareness campaign on Rue Montorgueil, this Friday, September 18th. A street that wasn't chosen by chance, since according to municipal figures, around 1,000 cigarette butts are thrown there every day. In addition to renaming the street by installing new signs, sixteen mediators walked the street up and down all day to raise awareness among passersby and distribute free pocket ashtrays. They also reminded many smokers that the most effective way to avoid throwing your cigarette butt on the ground, even accidentally, is still to quit smoking.

A fairly obvious observation, yet no less meaningful at a time when the number of daily smokers is shrinking more and more.