Cigarette Butt Litter—Articles About Preventing Litter

Clean Virginia Waterways has compiled summaries of articles about cigarette litter from around the world. These articles about cigarette litter can be found on the tobacco.org website. Type "litter" in the tobacco.org search option to get the newest articles.

Categories of articles (below) are:

Indoor Smoking Bans Lead to Outdoor Cigarette litter
Litter Law Enforcement
Banning Smoking in Order to Reduce Litter
Portable Ashtrays--A way to reduce cigarette litter
Getting Tobacco Manufacturers Involved with Litter Prevention

Indoor Smoking Bans Lead to Outdoor Cigarette Litter

Get your butts off the street
Source: The Galway Advertiser (ie), 2004-04-15
Author: KERNAN ANDREWS

The smoking ban has resulted in smokers having to vacate pubs and smoke outside resulting in a lot of butts on the street. Some pubs have installed containers on stands to prevent people from leaving their cigarette stubs on the ground, and now Sean Ó Neachtain is calling for such 'municipal ashtrays' to be installed outside pubs throughout the city.
"One of the consequences of the smoking ban has been that our cities streets have started to become covered in smoking butts," he said. "They are a litter problem and an eyesore."

Business group: 'Smoking ban will exacerbate litter'
Source: online.ie (ie), 2004-03-18

The Irish Business Against Litter organisation has claimed that 200 million extra cigarette butts will be dumped on the streets every year due to the Government's workplace smoking ban.

Fayetteville Battles Cigarette Litter
Business Owners Say Butts Abound On Dickson Street
Source: KHBS/KHOG (Fort Smith/Fayetteville, AR), 2004-03-15

Although Fayetteville's new smoking ban may be keeping the air cleaner, concerned citizens and business owners said Sunday that the ban is making the streets dirtier. Fayetteville resident Todd Gunter said he has seen cigarette butts strewn along the sidewalks, streets and planters along Dickson Street. Business owners who talked with KHBS/KHOG agreed with Gunter's assessment. They said there has been a dramatic increase in litter since the ban took effect Thursday.

Litter Law Enforcement

Politician wants to get tough on cigarette-butt throwers
Source: Contra Costa (CA) Times, 2004-04-10
Author: Jim Sanders SACRAMENTO BEE

Motorists who toss cigarette butts out the window could be fined more than their car is worth under legislation proposed by a Southern California lawmaker. . . . Fines and penalty assessments would range from a minimum of $3,400 for first-time offenders to $20,400 for anyone cited three times or more. "I want to reach the point where the fine is so significant that it's just not worth it (to litter)," said Assemblyman Russ Bogh, a Cherry Valley Republican who introduced the measure, AB 2694.

Libs plan to out butts
Source: Melbourne (Vic) Herald Sun (au), 2004-03-28
Author: IAN HABERFIELD Sunday Herald Sun

ON-THE-SPOT fines for littering will be doubled under a Liberal plan to clean up the millions of cigarette butts littering our streets. Smokers caught throwing away cigarette butts would be fined $200 and the fine for throwing litter from a car would double to $400, under a Liberal government. Repeat offenders would face further penalties and be forced to complete community service orders, Opposition Environment spokesman Phil Honeywood said.

Banning Smoking in Order to Reduce Litter

EDITORIAL: Don't rush to ban smoking at area beaches
Source: Torrance (CA) Daily Breeze, 2004-04-09

It's understandable that many beachgoers want smokers to clean up their act, but a better way to do that would be to concentrate on enforcing anti-litter laws rather than a smoking ban. As Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn said, if cities pass such bans and don't have the resources to enforce them, respect for the law in general will decline. Smokers can also do much to reduce the need for smoking bans by being considerate of others, not tossing butts indiscriminately and keeping them out of storm drains, which transport such litter to the coastline.

LA panel backs proposal to ban cigarette smoking on beaches
Source: AP, 2004-04-07

A city panel supported banning smoking on Los Angeles beaches, a proposal that would match laws already passed in Santa Monica and other coastal areas intended to reduce litter from cigarette butts.
"Our beaches are our most precious natural resource, and it's good news for L.A. if the world knows our beaches are cleaner and more smoke-free than ever before," Councilman Jack Weiss, who proposed the ban to the Arts, Health and Humanities Committee, said Tuesday. The proposed law, recommended to the City Council for approval, would be primarily self-enforced, like the city's ban on smoking in stores and restaurants, Weiss said.

LA Lawmakers Seek to Ban Beach Smoking
Source: Reuters Health, 2004-04-07
Author: Sarah Tippit

The 15-member Los Angeles city council is expected to approve a ban on smoking on public beaches later this month.
"Our beaches are our most precious natural resource and it's good news for LA if the world knows our beaches are cleaner and more smoke-free than ever before," said Los Angeles Councilman Jack Weiss, who sponsored the bill and said he is "confident" his colleagues on the council would back it. Cigarettes are the most common litter on California beaches.

California Cities Ban Smoking at the Beach
Source: Fox News, 2004-03-30

It's illegal in the office, in bars and restaurants and in many public parks. And now, smoking is being outlawed at the beach in several California cities. Santa Monica (search), San Clemente and Solana Beach have banned lighting up on the sand. Advocates cite health hazards and problems with litter as the main reasons behind the ban. But opponents say smokers are being unfairly targeted. Still, five more seaside cities are set to adopt similar restrictions because they don't want to be inundated by smokers -- and their butts.

Smoking ban issue splits beachgoers
Mayor says Oxnard not likely to follow Santa Monica's lead
Source: Ventura County (CA) Star, 2004-03-27
Author: Molly Freedenberg

But Ventura County cities currently have no plans to enact such a ban. Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez said the subject has never come up with the City Council. Local beachgoers are divided on the issue. Those who agree with a ban say they're sick of smoke in their faces and cigarette butts in the sand. But smokers say secondhand smoke dissipates in the open air and that litter is a problem that can be solved another way.

Lighting Up at Beach Is Banned
Santa Monica becomes the first city in LA County to outlaw smoking at the shore. Some areas of the pier are excluded.
Source: Los Angeles Times, 2004-03-25
Author: Martha Groves, Times Staff Writer

Seeking to stamp out cigarette-butt litter and secondhand smoke's ill effects, Santa Monica has become the second city in California - and the first in Los Angeles County - to outlaw smoking at the beach.
If the Santa Monica City Council again approves the ordinance at its second reading April 13, the ban will take effect May 13, said Deputy City Atty. Adam Radinsky. Seaside San Clemente bans smoking on its beaches and pier
Source: AP, 2004-03-17
Author: Associated Press

Smoking will be banned on the city pier and beaches.

The City Council voted 3-2 on Tuesday to ban smoking as a way to reduce beach and pier litter and keep cigarette butts out of the ocean. The ban won't apply to San Clemente State Beach.
"They are the first in Orange County and have made a huge statement," said Stephanie Barger, founder of Earth Resource Foundation. "They had the courage to show other coastal cities that they can go up to the plate."

Park, beach smoking ban plan in Martin tossed out window
Source: Stuart/ Port St. Lucie (FL) News, 2004-01-14
Author: Jim Turner staff writer

MARTIN COUNTY - Smokers will be able to continue lighting up at most county parks and beaches. They also won't have to worry about being targeted by litter police for improperly disposing of cigarette butts.
In approving a revised code for parks and beaches on Tuesday, the County Commission unanimously agreed not to enact a recommendation from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee to designate smoking areas at all county parks. The recommended smoking ban was aimed at reducing litter.

Brits snub ciggiess ban
Source: The Sun (uk), 2003-10-26

FEWER than one in five Britons wants a New York-style smoking ban in public places, a survey out today reveals.
Nearly one in three non-smokers said they were not concerned about people lighting up in pubs and restaurants.
And most of the 1,800 people polled by BMRB International put yobbish behaviour, litter and graffiti higher on their hate list.

No-smoking forces taking new territory: the beach
Source: Christian Science Monitor, 2004-03-22
Author: Daniel B. Wood * Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Ten years after California set a national precedent by banning smoking in restaurants and bars - and months after prohibiting it within feet of government buildings and playgrounds - many of the state's coastal cities are now banning smoking at the beach.
Health and environmental officials say the moves are a logical extension of smoking bans in other public places and are necessary to meet state and federal antipollution requirements.
Some legislators, however, fear the government is prying too far into private lives, with unnecessary and overly puritanical dictums. . . .
Los Angeles is also drafting a no-smoking ordinance for Venice, Dockweiler, Will Rogers, and Cabrillo beaches.
"This is really a very basic issue, which is that the community is standing up to protect its youth and citizens from tobacco smoke and litter," says Judy Strang, executive director of Youth Tobacco Prevention Corps, a group of teen activists that set the legislation in motion two years ago at Solana Beach.

EDITORIAL: Beach cigarette smokers leave trail of litter behind
Source: Island Packet, 2003-11-04

The Town of Hilton Head Island should snuff out cigarette smoking on the beach. Other areas are doing it, or considering it, and the reason is simple. They're tired of their beaches being used as ashtrays.
When more than 100 Girl Scouts and chaperones spent a morning in September picking up litter on Hilton Head's beaches . . . Littering on the beach already is outlawed. But to get to the root of the problem, a ban of cigarette smoking on the beach is needed.

NEW BRIGHTON: Park ban on butts working
Source: Saint Paul (MN) Pioneer Press, 2003-11-07
Author: ALLEN POWELL II Pioneer Press

Six months ago, parents and children leaving the Eagles' Nest playground in the New Brighton Family Service Center often had to walk through a fog of cigarette smoke and the litter of butts.
But since the city enacted the state's first tobacco-free parks policy in May, the ground and the air have cleared, said Steve Rymer, the city's parks and recreation director. More importantly, he said, the city is moving toward truly healthy recreation.
"We want people in the parks, and we just want to promote a healthy lifestyle for all," Rymer said. "We had to start somewhere."
The New Brighton policy bans the use of any form of tobacco in the city's 13 parks and its Family Service Center.

 

Portable Ashtrays—A way to reduce cigarette litter

30,000 cigarette butts litter ski slope ($$)
Source: Times Of London (UK), 2004-02-16

A French ski resort is selling portable ashtrays to tourists to try to reduce the millions of cigarette butts deposited on Alpine slopes every year. Officials at Val Thorens, which attracts thousands of British skiers, say that they find 30,000 butts under a single chairlift during the winter season. These pollute the water supply when the snow melts in the spring. . . . A French researcher, Jean-François Donzier, recently gave warning against such pollution of mountain streams. "Their flow is always slow and that means that the impact of pollution is much greater than in rivers," he said. "Mountain streams are the world's water tower. It is important to look after them."

Bid to stamp out butts on the beach
Source: AAP (Australian Associated Press), 2004-01-07
Author: AAP

A CAMPAIGN wants the public to keep their butts out of the waters of Melbourne's beaches - cigarette butts that is.
Almost one in three cigarette butts in Australia become litter and they represent more than 50 per cent of litter on Melbourne beaches. Six Melbourne bayside councils have joined forces with high-profile environmental group Planet Ark to launch the BUTTsOUT program to reverse the trend. They will hand out about 10,000 personal ashtrays shaped like human buttocks to smokers on Melbourne's beaches to encourage them to dispose of their cigarette butts responsibly this summer.

Getting Tobacco Manufacturers Involved with Litter Prevention

"Earlier this year, we began carrying an anti-litter logo on several brands. We believe we have a role to play in the reduction of litter." —Jennifer Golisch, media affairs manager for Philip Morris. 2003

 

These articles about cigarette litter can be found on the http://www.tobacco.org/ website. Type "litter" in the search option.

Click here for information about workplace smoking bans, and how they impact cigarette litter in the environment.

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Compiled by Clean Virginia Waterways, Longwood University, Farmville, VA 23909
434-395-2602 Fax: 434-395-2825 Email: cleanva@longwood.edu