Smokers create almost half the rubbish on the capital's streets, it has been revealed with the launch of a new anti-littering campaign.

Organisers of Keep Britain Tidy will fight to get smokers to "stub it and bin it" by handing out 250,000 free cigarette pouches so people can store their butts in them instead of throwing them on the street.

The stub-out packets are designed to store butts safely and come in a range of colours and patterns.

Cigarette butts make up more than 40 per cent of London's rubbish. The crackdown will punish smokers with fines up to £75 if they choose to litter instead of using a bin or a stub-out pouch as a means of disposal.

Alan Woods, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: "With nowhere to smoke in the pub or the office, smokers are nipping outside for a cigarette.

"With bars and businesses reluctant to provide bins, the result is more flung fag ends, boxes and matches and eventually a bigger council tax tab to clean them up."

Richmond upon Thames Council is striking now before next year's smoking ban forces even more smokers outside.

Councillor David Marlow, the council's cabinet member for the environment and planning, said: "Cigarette filters are particularly problematic, taking up to 12 years to degrade.

"Many of the 600 litter bins around our borough now have special ashtrays in the lid so smokers can stub their cigarettes out before throwing them in the bin.

"We also ask people that if a bin is not available, you dispose of the butt responsibly. This year we will be spending over £13million on keeping the borough clean. So remember, next time you finish a cigarette, don't drop it, stub and bin it."

Opposition spokesman on the environment, Coun Martin Elengorn, said he is shocked by the casual way smokers drop their cigarette ends in the street, to the clean up expense of tax payers.

Visit www.encams.org/knowledge/ smokinglitter to find out more.