09/11/2006: "No Ifs, Cans, Or Butts About It!"

By Lori Stokes

I walk around Friday Harbor a lot. I am also part of the Trash Masters group that regularly cleans up litter along Roche Harbor Road. What do I see whenever I look down? Cigarette butts and more cigarette butts. Not a pretty sight, to say the least.

So, besides the fact that cigarette butts are just plain ugly, there are environmental factors to consider. An alarming number of cigarette butts end up in gutters, and from there go down storm drains that empty into the waters that surround our island. Fish and other marine creatures can easily mistake the butts for food and eat them. Butts present a similar threat to land-based wildlife that swallow them and suffer the consequences of eating plastic.

I decided to do a little research on the internet about cigarette butts. According to the Center for Marine Conservation, cigarette butts are the most prevalent form of litter on earth. It appears that many people, who wouldn't even think about littering the ground with bottles, cans, or fast food wrappers, don't seem to see cigarette butts as litter. Perhaps it is because they incorrectly believe that cigarette filters are made from biodegradable cotton; in fact, most cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that can take many years to decompose.

Cigarette butts are also a fire hazard. Over the last few years there has been at least one brush fire on San Juan Island caused by a butt thrown from the window of a car. Will it take a major brush or forest fire on our island to convince smokers to stop using the roadside as an ashtray?

Throwing cigarette butts on the ground, as is the case with all litter, is also disrespectful of others. It just transfers the disposal problem from the smoker to someone else -- a government or business employee who is tasked with litter clean-up, or a private citizen who simply volunteers to pick up litter. I believe it is just plain wrong that public tax dollars, as well as volunteer efforts, need to be used to clean up after others.

New statewide anti-smoking laws prohibit smoking closer than 25 feet from the doors of taverns, restaurants, and other businesses. It is also illegal to throw cigarette butts, lit or otherwise, onto the ground or pavement, and you can be fined for doing so.

What You Can Do
If you are a smoker, please be respectful of others and of the environment and don't use the ground, the sidewalk, or the gutter as your personal ashtray. The Town of Friday Harbor and some local businesses have placed cigarette butt disposal devices outside of their establishments; please use them. Or carry a disposable ashtray when you are out and about. Please refrain from emptying your car ashtray onto a roadside. If you notice a friend or colleague disposing of a butt inappropriately, you might gently point out the environmental issues relating to the plastic in the filter.