Be careful, smokers: new Illinois law brings potential fine for dropping your butts

SHARE Be careful, smokers: new Illinois law brings potential fine for dropping your butts

AP File Photo

A bill signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn on August 16 will add cigarette butts to the state’s Litter Control Act come January 1, a violation that carries a potential Class B misdemeanor charge and a fine up to $1,500. So be careful with your butts, smokers.

Illinois’ Littering Control Act also requires the owner of any business or public owner to provide receptacles for the proper disposal of litter. If no receptables are provided, owners face a $100 fine and a petty offense charge.

HB 3243 was introduced in February by former representative Deb Mell and passed the House 71-45 (roll call) before cruising through the Senate 55-0 (roll call).

[Via the Rockford Register Star]

The Latest
Antoine Perteet, 33, targeted victims on the dating app Grindr, according to Chicago police.
Glass-facade buildings can disorient birds in flight. The city is expected to update and revise rules for new developments and rehabbed buildings next month. But bird groups say the proposed guidelines need to be mandatory.
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.