The City of Long Beach on March 31 launched the Can Your Butts campaign at Gallagher’s Pub and Grill, 2751 East Broadway. The campaign promotes a clean, safe and litter-free community by offering education and assistance to Long Beach restaurants, bars and other businesses to reduce cigarette litter in commercial corridors, according to city officials.
“Cigarette litter has a negative impact on Long Beach businesses, tourism and ecosystem,” said Mayor Robert Garcia. “By educating businesses and providing resources to dispose of cigarette butts we are cutting down on litter and also improving the quality of life for our City’s residents.”
Participating businesses can receive free resources such as posters, pocket ashtrays and a cigarette waste receptacle for the front of their establishment. Thirty-three businesses along the Broadway corridor will participate in the first phase of this campaign. The campaign will expand to other business districts over the next several months.
“I am proud that we’re launching the Can Your Butts campaign, and I know this small change will have a positive, lasting impact on the surrounding area,” said 2nd District Councilmember Jeannine Pearce. “I encourage businesses to take advantage of the resources that the Can Your Butts campaign offers.”
Cigarette butts and other tobacco products make up over a third of all litter found on US roadways, public spaces, beaches and waterways, according to officials. Cigarette butts cause environmental and public-safety problems as they are not biodegradable. They leach toxic chemicals into the environment and are especially poisonous to children, pets and wildlife if ingested. Cleaning up cigarette litter costs millions of dollars every year, according to the City.
“Cigarette butts are the most common item found during our regular cleanup events that take place all around Long Beach,” said Diko Melkonian, Public Works Environmental Services Bureau manager. “By educating and partnering with Long Beach businesses, we will cut down on cigarette litter.”
Long Beach City Code requires businesses that sell tobacco products, serve alcohol or allow smoking to provide and empty a tobacco-waste receptacle.
The City has provided the following tips for such businesses:
• Provide and maintain cigarette receptacles to prevent littering. For every added receptacle, the littering rate decreases by 9 percent.
• Provide receptacles in employee smoking areas.
• Consider recycling cigarette waste. Terracycle.com offers a free program for businesses to ship cigarette waste that is recycled into products like plastic pallets. Even the tobacco and ash are recycled via composting.
For more information, visit litterfreelb.org.
Source: City of LB
