Don’t Leave Your Butt Behind !
Cigarette Litter Awareness Day 2008
On February 2, 2008 Keep Pearland Beautiful held its fourth annual Cigarette Litter
Awareness Day. KPB had hoped to see a decrease in the number of “butts” from previous
years, but alas it was not to be. Thanks to ten volunteers, fifteen community service
workers and two KPB staff, we collected 25,340 butts as compared to 18,500 in 2007 and
23,400 butts in 2006! KPB will be looking at ways to create awareness about this growing
litter problem in our city.
The Keep Pearland Beautiful cigarette litter campaign is part of a national focus
by Keep America Beautiful to tackle cigarette litter. KPB has placed ads in local papers,
talked to school groups and civic organizations, included the “Don’t Leave Your Butts Behind”
concept in our semi-annual clean-ups, placed receptacles at targeted locations, conducted
litter surveys at community events and placed signs at targeted intersections. Our goal is
to grow awareness but we need more help from volunteers; KPB wants to include more transitional
points for collection each year. Would your business be willing to display a poster or place
an ash receptacle at the door? Now that Pearland is a “No Smoking” city, smokers will be
looking for ways to dispose of their cigarette butts.
Keep Pearland Beautiful targeted six transitional points which included Pearland Parkway
at FM518, Westminster at FM518, the Justice of the Peace office at Grand and Pear St., McLean
at FM518, Main St. at FM518 and Austin St. at FM518. All volunteers received a special sweat
shirt as a reward for a hard morning’s work and all the work was done by 10:30 a.m.
Counting the butts was made easy, thanks again to volunteer and Keep Pearland Beautiful
board president Helen Beckman. Mrs. Beckman actually counted out cigarette butts into a one
gallon milk jug and marked the jug in increments of 100. Volunteers Joe Miller, Stew & Shirley
Coffman, Erin Steele, Lesa Brownstein, Betty Mitchell, Richard Eskuchen, Natalie Skrobarczyk,
Buck Stevens and Theresa Jordan used these specially marked jugs to calculate just how many
butts were collected.
“And why would anyone care how many butts are on the streets of Pearland?” one might ask.
Here are just a few of the reasons as stated in previous columns:
- Cigarette butts are not biodegradable; this is a myth. The filter of a cigarette is
made of cellulose acetate and can take from 5 to 8 years to biodegrade.
- Cigarette butts can be a fire hazard. Numerous fires are caused by or related to careless
extinguishing of cigarette butts indoors, thrown from car windows, and thrown on the ground by pedestrians.
- Cigarette butts contain harmful chemicals that can be passed into the ground and water where
they present a threat to small children and wildlife who mistake them for food.
Remember that excuses for throwing out cigarette butts are just that – excuses. Just because
everyone else does it does not make it anymore pleasant that trillions of “butts” are landing on
our Texas highways each year. Another myth: Prisoners will pick up our trash. You the tax payer
need to know that each year municipal and state governments spend millions of dollars paying
contractors to pick up trash on Texas roads. The last really ‘lame’ excuse: That is what they
get for making me smoke outside. Smokers need to get used to the idea that more and more public
places are banning smoking indoors. A pocket ashtray is available to any smoker that wishes to
drop by the offices of Keep Pearland Beautiful, 2947 E. Broadway, Ste. 300.
Please mark you calendars for our next event, a Tire Round-Up, March 15th. Keep Pearland
Beautiful staff and volunteers will be on hand at the Pearland Recycling Center to assist staff
in collecting tires from Pearland citizens. The center is located at 5800 Magnolia in the
Southwest Environmental Center. If you have questions or comments, please call the offices of
KPB at 281-652-1659 or email
cowles@keeppearlandbeautiful.org.
Keep Pearland Beautiful in conjunction with Keep America Beautiful is launching a cigarette
litter awareness campaign. Why would such a small thing be of concern to KPB, you might ask?
For the past two years, Keep America Beautiful has conducted pilot Cigarette Litter Prevention
programs in twenty different communities across the United States. Here are some interesting
facts and information gleaned from those programs.
Background
When it ends ups on the ground and not in a receptacle, a cigarette butt is litter. Partially
smoked cigarettes, matches, disposable lighters, packaging as well as cigarette butts are all
part of this growing national problem.
Studies have shown that an individual who would never litter a beverage can, fast food packaging
or other items may be dropping cigarette litter! Because it is small, many smokers do not regard
a littered cigarette butt as litter.
Cigarette Litter FACTS
As one of the smallest pieces of litter, cigarette litter represents over 20% of the litter collected
in many community cleanup initiatives. The filters contain cellulose acetate in the form of a fiber
that looks like cotton thread. But it is not. These fibers breakdown or degrade in the environment
very slowly in some cases taking years. But cigarette filters do not biodegrade.
One researcher found that 18% of all litter dropped to the ground is washed into streams, rivers,
lakes and the ocean by storm water runoff. Cigarette butts are lightweight and are easily carried
in runoff through our storm drain systems to our local waterways. Texas Department of Transportation
and the Don’t Mess with Texas highway cleanup initiatives find that cigarette litter is now at the
top of the list of littered items.
You Can Make a Difference
Carry a portable or pocket ashtray when smoking outside. Encourage smokers to be aware of where their
cigarette will be discarded when they light up.
Use a receptacle to dispose of cigarette butts, packaging and lighting material. Ash receptacles
are needed at the places where people stop smoking before they proceed.
Do not throw butts out car windows. Use the car ashtray, a portable ashtray which may fit in the
cup holder or on the window, or reuse another container with a secure top like empty bottle or snap-lid
candy tins.
Be aware of Pearland’s litter ordinance
It is unlawful for any person to throw, drop, cast, or deposit upon any street, alley, sidewalk, or
any yard or premises, public or private, filth of any kind, or cans, paper, thrash, paper containers,
rubbish, bottles, or any other form of litter or waste matter. The first offense is punishable by a
fine of not less than $100 and not more than $2000.
Do your part to Keep Pearland Beautiful, even if your do not smoke. Encourage smokers you do know
to Not Leave Butts Behind! Comments may be sent to
cowles@keeppearlandbeautiful.org or call
281-652-1659.
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