The city's Department of Public Works spent more than $15 million this past fiscal year cleaning up litter, according to a new report.

Last year, a report prepared in anticipation of a tobacco fee designed to pay for cigarette butt cleanup produced an estimate that litter cleanup cost the Department of Public Works more than $20 million in 2009 — suggesting either residents are becoming neater, can no longer afford to buy things to throw away, or that the city is leaving trash on the ground due to budget cuts.