Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/223368
Sarasota News Leader December 6, 2013 OPINION cigarette butts now litter the sands. One would be excused from thinking, at least momentarily, that one was on the Jersey Shore (or on any beach between Coney Island and Ocean City). Page 82 butts on the beaches — not as litter, but as the inappropriate disposal of hazardous waste. Think that is "government overreach?" Pick up a few butts on the beach and send them to an independent test lab for analysis. Most However, the problem with butts is not just people would be shocked to learn just what that they are unsightly litter. They are tiny harmful agents lurk in those innocuous cellucontainers brimful of lose tubes. toxic sludge. As the Ye a r s a g o , N o r t h The problem with cigarette butts is smokers putrefy their Carolina instituted a lungs, many of the not just that they are unsightly litter. They most harmful chemi- are tiny containers brimful of toxic sludge. program to cut down on roadway litter in cals added by tobacco general and cigarette companies to ramp up butts in particular the addictive quality of (because they also the products is stored in the filters, which then are casually tossed have the nasty habit of starting destructive wildfires) by initiating the "Swat-A-Litterbug" by crass addicts onto the sand. campaign. These butts then can be picked up by beach wildlife — and even small children — and The state set up a special website through which anyone observing another person eaten, with devastating results. throwing a cigarette butt from a vehicle could Collectively, the toxicity of those butts can make an online report, citing the location, alter the ecology of the beach, wiping out the date, time and vehicle license number. flora and fauna that sustain it. The state then sent a letter to the owner of Even worse, the county cannot simply rake that vehicle pointing out that someone occuthe beach to collect these discarded butts, pying it at the stated date, time and location because that would disturb wildlife that lives threw out litter. The state warned that, had in the top layer of sand. The butts must be a law enforcement officer observed the act, picked up one at a time to minimize the impact the offender would have been cited and subof their collection on the environment. jected to a fine of up to $1,000. So Sarasota County should move to stop this If the same vehicle got tagged in several ecological disaster-in-the-making by enact- reports for incidents of tossing butts, the ing harsh penalties for disposing of cigarette vehicle was identified to law enforcement