If You Burn It, Urn It
Release Date: Monday, April 18th 2011
The Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID) is launching a campaign in the Central Business District to clean up one of the most littered items in America – cigarette butts.
This campaign coincides with the theme of the Earth Day 2011 celebration on April 22 – “A Billion Acts of Green,” an effort to get everybody to commit to doing their share to protect the environment. The Golden Triangle BID’s campaign is designed to enlighten and educate workers, commuters and tourists in the Central Business District about the hazards of tossing cigarette butts on the ground. It encourages smokers to put their cigarette butts in the proper receptacles.
“Some people don’t give a second thought to dropping their cigarette butts on the ground, but cigarette butts are trash,” said Leona Agouridis, executive director of the Golden Triangle BID. “They litter our sidewalks and parks and – worse yet – these cigarette butts can end up in the sewer system.”
The problem has escalated since laws prohibiting smoking inside public buildings have been enacted. Smokers are now puffing while standing outside their workplaces, favorite eateries and bars. The result has been a massive increase in the number of cigarette butts littering the landscape.
Each day there are nearly 30,000 cigarette butts discarded on the sidewalks in front of businesses, retail shops, restaurants and office buildings in the 43 blocks of the Golden Triangle BID. The BID’s 40 customer-friendly Ambassadors pick up an average of 200,000 cigarette butts a week. That’s about 800,000 cigarette butts every month.
Of the 25 minutes an Ambassador spends cleaning a block, 15 minutes are devoted to picking up cigarette butts. Removing this litter is critical so they don’t end up in the sewer system.
The campaign will advertise the proper way to dispose of cigarette butts on bus shelter signs, post cards and cigarette street urn coverings. As the Ambassadors canvass the streets, they will hand out the post cards to passersby and offer portable cigarette ash urns to smokers who want to use this convenient way to discard their cigarette butts.
The Golden Triangle BID is committed to beautifying the Central Business District. Earlier this month, the BID sponsored a spring cleaning week where the Ambassadors and staff mulched nearly 100 trees along K Street NW, recycled approximately 300 cell phones, painted light poles, cleaned six parks and swept and pressure washed sidewalks to remove deep dirt, stains and chewing gum.
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