2/14/08- As seen in The Citzen Editorial Section

Enforcement could halt cigarette-butt litter

BY Chris Belland

Disgusting! That's the only word to describe what I, and a bunch of other folks, did for half of our Saturday. We picked up other people's cigarette butts: wet ones, dry ones, with and without filters, Tiparillos, and a few cigar butts. ... Once in the bag and in the car, the overwhelming burnt smell almost made me throw up.

We did this not to rid the environment of one of the most egregious and rude forms of litter. That would be futile. ... We did do it to make a point.

When all the volunteers made their way to the front steps of City Hall, we did just that. On display were bags upon bags of butts ... maybe as many as 100,000. ... For some unfathomable reason, [people] do not think of cigarette butts as litter because, one at a time, I guess they are not very noticeable. In fact, in the United States, cigarette butts are the most common form of litter, with one in three being thrown into the environment, yielding an astonishing 176 million pounds a year.

In Florida, an average 17.4 percent of adults smoke an average of 19.1 cigarettes [a day]. If you apply the same statistics to Key West, that puts 23,714 cigarette butts on our streets each day and 8,631,774 each year, before we consider what tourists throw out.

Cigarette butts are not cotton. They are cellulose acetate, a form of plastic, and can take up to 25 years to break down. Cigarette butts contain tar, cadmium, lead and arsenic, to name just a few of the wonderful things that, when ... washed into the stormwater sewers, go right into the nearshore waters where I and you swim and fish. ...

We're so arrogant. We're so smart. We're certainly at the top of the animal kingdom. Right? Wrong! Even the lowest animal on this planet respects his home more than humans. They do not foul their own nests as consciously and abundantly as we.

This is a problem. I believe it is a significant problem encompassing social attitude, aesthetics and health. We have government to address these issues and, in fact, laws on the books to stop it. Since I spent my Saturday picking up other people's litter, I believe I have earned the right to ask why nothing is being done to stop something that one class of citizens is doing against the universal desire of the rest of us.

I know the police are busy. I know code enforcement officers are busy, but I believe a few $100 or $200 fines will stop this rude and disgusting behavior. Given the numbers of infractions, it might even be a significant revenue source.

Thanks to all of you who cared enough to show up and "walk the walk."