Butt Tossing Smokers Get Ashtrays to Go

German smokers may still laugh at their American counterparts, who have been banned from inhaling everywhere from bars to beaches. In many German cities, however, smokers do face fines for tossing their cigarette butts onto the streets.

The city of Düsseldorf in western Germany is one of these places. Last August the city's code enforcement officials began cracking down on negligent smokers and charging those caught flagrante delicto a €10 ($12) fine. So far, 103 people have been asked to pay up.

Smokers might take offense, but that's still better than the €35 Düsseldorf officials want from chewing gum offenders.

Living up to their reputation as friendly Rhinelanders, along with their fines, the butt tossers will be given a little present along with the ticket. Guilty parties will now receive disposable ash-and-gum trays that hold up to a dozen cigarette ends and probably quite a few more wads of old Wrigley's.

The foldable thing looks a bit like an aluminum-lined French fries container and is supposed to be kept in pants pocket (don't complain if your pants start smelling like, well, an ash tray). Anyone interested in reusing the porta-ashtray can empty it at one of Düsseldorf's 4,200 trash cans, according to a city press release.

Many waste bins have what's called a "cigarette reception device," or Zigarettenaufnahmevorrichtung -- an ashtray, as some people might call it instead.