 A Washington company is helping to stub out the problem of cigarette waste amongst North-East organisations. Partscale Ltd, the metal spinning and press specialists, had been looking to diversify into its own product range, alongside the firm's traditional customer base, when they were approached by The Galleries shopping centre in Washington. Partscale's Charles Hepplewhite explains: "As a small manufacturing company we'd never had time or the opportunity to develop products of our own, but we realised that we needed to start doing so. "We had been looking at possibly producing items for gardens when we were approached by The Galleries to produce large receptacles for the shopping centre for people to put cigarettes in. When we looked at it we thought we had a better idea, which we call a stub station. "We recognised that with the new legislation on smoking in public areas, there will be a need for the management of cigarette stub disposal that also helps to keep the exterior of property free of cigarette waste. "This enables staff and visitors to premises to quickly and easily dispose of their cigarette stubs through one of the top openings and, because this won't easily accept other waste, the risk of fires and the unattractive look of an open ashtray can be avoided." Three local organisations have participated in trialling the new product, with great success, and Partscale is looking to market the stub stations more widely. | 
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