KTB GREEN CORNER
by Lee AndersonKTB volunteer
BUT A CIGARETTE BUTT IS SO SMALL…how could it have even a “small” impact on our environment? 4.5 Trillion are littered in our parks, sidewalks, and public places yearly, according to Keep America Beautiful. Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the United States.
This year Keep America Beautiful has a campaign to encourage our local affiliates such as Keep Taylor Beautiful to educate and help amend/clarify the anti-litter laws in existence to include cigarette litter. If you are a smoker thinking you are acting responsibly by extinguishing your cigarette with your foot, but then leaving it on the ground, think again…you are littering. “Littering is against the Law!” Do you drop cigarette butts into gutters or storm drains to extinguish? Throwing your cigarette butt out the window while driving has had huge impact in some states. In 2004, in Virginia, cigarette butts tossed in a jammed trash chute destroyed 26 buildings and resulted in 20 million dollars of damage. Did you know that 95% of filters are made of plastic cellulose acetate and take many years to decompose? And…There are 165 chemicals in cigarettes that birds and small animals ingest thinking it’s food and it gets into their digestive tract and makes them feel they are full and then they quit eating? Keep America Beautiful states that over half of the population of smokers claimed they would change their behavior just by being informed of seriousness of cigarette butt litter.
The Spring Trash-0ff on April 28 is a good time to consider a change in the way you reduce, recycle and reuse, and dispose of cigarette butts. There are simple changes we can all make in our lives to benefit our world around us. Do you use recycling bins at work for aluminum, plastic, paper, cardboard? It’s a good business practice to encourage employees to recycle as well as making it a practice at home. It just takes a little effort and practice to get in the habit. Do you recycle your newspapers? I hope so, because we have several dumpster locations for collection, and there will be a shredder at this year’s Trash-off on the 28th at the Chamber with a minimal fee. Don’t forget to recycle those old telephone books as well.
Folks, we have a responsibility to our environment to take care of it the best we can, and to pass that habit onto our children. It’s astonishing how many aluminum cans and fast food trash line our streets. It gets old picking them up too, especially when you find two new beer cans on your property every day. How can we really keep Taylor beautiful? We have the opportunity to REDUCE, RECYCLE, and REUSE, to be more environmentally aware of our responsibility and accountable in keeping our community clean and GREEN for the next generation!
posted by Miles Baska 
