Nobody likes to look at, smell or step on other peoples’ discarded cigarette butts, especially during a day at the beach or at a park with family.
According to Keep America Beautiful, over the past decade, cigarette smoking in America has decreased 28 percent, yet cigarette butts remain the most littered item in the U.S. and across the globe. They are the No. 1 item collected at local beaches and other litter clean-ups, said Satellite Beach City Manager Courtney Barker.
Help is on the way to bolster Satellite Beach’s efforts to reduce nasty cigarette butt debris in public places. The city has requested 30 of the 10,000 free “litter stands” being donated nationwide as part of the Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP) promoted by Keep Brevard Beautiful.
Satellite Beach City Councilman Dominick Montanaro has personally picked up thousands of cigarette butts in public places, each week donning gloves and reaching down for each one, often filling two-quart bags at a single location. After that experience, Montanaro convinced the council to ask for more of the devices to help get a handle on the city’s notorious “smoke zones.”
Launched in 2002, the CLPP program has been successfully implemented in more than 1,800 urban, suburban and rural communities nationwide. Studies show that for every additional litter stand, the littering rate for cigarette butts decreases 9 percent in that area.
Satellite Beach city workers will have six months to install the 30 of the 4-by-4-by-14-inch litter stands made of black powder-coated aluminum manufactured by Sidewalk Buttler. Locations so far include at all city buildings, the skate park, Desoto Park and all 15 beach accesses.
As part of the program, adult smokers are being given the opportunity to enter locations (city and ZIP code) on a map to indicate where they would like to see a litter stand installed. As stands are placed, an interactive map will show locations that have been selected.
As of May, nearly half of the 10,000 KAB litter stand installation goal has been met.
The majority of smokers have said they would properly dispose of their butts if suitable receptacles were available.
