Share this story | More Date of Issue: Aug 26, 2009 Beachgoers get ashtrays for butts By Lisa Neff Islander Reporter Sun and smokes Keep Manatee Beautiful volunteer Bob Goodwin talks with four men at Manatee Public Beach Aug. 19 about KMB’s Bin Your Butts campaign. Islander Photos: Lisa Neff Smokers are used to paying ever higher prices for cigarettes and seeing accommodations for their habits dwindle. Last week, 1,200 smokers on Anna Maria Island beaches received gifts — portable ashtrays for their butts. The giveaways are part of the Keep Manatee Beautiful campaign to clean up the Island’s beaches by encouraging the proper disposal of cigarette butts. To fund the campaign, the nonprofit organization received three $1,500 grants from its parent organization, Keep America Beautiful. On Aug. 17, volunteers Bob Goodwin, chair of KMB, and Amanda DeSantis and David Pickup with the county recycling program, handed out ashtrays on Manatee Public Beach in Holmes Beach and additional volunteers worked in Bayfront Park in Anna Maria. Goodwin returned to the beach Aug. 19 to distribute more ashtrays. Most of the people he approached showed interest in the campaign, said Goodwin, who addressed adults who did not have their hands full of beach equipment or were not accompanied by children. “I try to size up the person,” he said. “And one thing we are not doing — we are not walking the beach. We don’t want to bother people relaxing on the beach.” On Aug. 18 and Aug. 21, volunteers handed out ashtrays on Coquina Beach in Bradenton Beach. And on Aug. 22, volunteers Pat Gentry, Tjet Martin and Connie Drescher handed out ashtrays on Cortez Beach in Bradenton Beach. Additionally, KMB volunteers delivered to some Island businesses table-top display cards encouraging smokers to “dispose of litter properly.” Keep Manatee Beautiful volunteer Bob Goodwin holds one of 1,200 portable ashtrays distributed on Anna Maria Island beaches last week. Islander Photos: Lisa Neff Last week’s activities marked the third wave in the month-long campaign, which, not coincidentally, is taking place during Cigarette Litter Prevention Month. In early August, volunteers picked up cigarette butts from the beaches. Also in early August, workers with the Manatee County parks and recreation department installed 55 cigarette bins on the beaches near picnic tables, rest rooms, pavilions, benches, concession stands and beach access trails. In September, KMB volunteers will return to the beaches to pick up cigarette butts. The hope, said KMB executive director Ingrid McClellan, is that smokers will use the bins and volunteers will collect far fewer butts. The volunteers in early August collected 6,608 butts from Manatee Public Beach, 2,797 from Coquina Beach, 889 from Cortez Beach and 3,431 from Bayfront Park. Cigarette butts make up about 40 percent of the litter collected during annual Coastal Cleanups in Manatee County and 46 percent statewide. KMB volunteers said their efforts are not simply to reduce gross-outs for beachgoers who step on or sit near a butt. The important factor, said Goodwin, is to minimize pollution of land and water. “A cigarette butt is a hazard,” Goodwin said. “It’s litter.” Cigarette butts are made of long-lasting cellulose acetate, a plastic that can take about 25 years to decompose. If ingested by wildlife, the butts can kill by starvation — they can block the digestive tract or fill the stomach, according to KMB. Additionally, cigarette butts contain cadmium, lead and arsenic, chemicals that also can kill wildlife. Tracking trash Keep Manatee Beautiful sponsors a series of programs for volunteers seeking to clean up litter and prevent pollution. A number of organizations are involved in KMB’s adopt-a-road and adopt-a-beach efforts. One of the bins erected at Manatee Public Beach for the collection of cigarette butts Islander Photos: Lisa Neff KMB, in partnership with the Manatee County Sheriffs Office, also sponsors Trash Trackers, a program in which citizens file reports on alleged litterbugs. After participating in a training session, Trash Trackers file reports on incidents of littering and dumping that they witness. Also, KMB sponsors coastal cleanup efforts, including the Florida Coastal Cleanup from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 3. For more information, call KMB at 941-795-8272 or go online to www.manateebeautiful.com.