Pet peeve numero uno: cigarette butts left on the beach!  Finding half-buried butts in the sand bothers me for so many different reasons.  Obviously it is ugly, unsanitary, and unsafe for the wildlife; but what really irks me about it, is that it seems to be a legal form of littering.  Everybody knows (at least those of us who love our beaches) to “Pack Your Trash.”  We also see the stickers that ask people to “Pack Your Butts;” so why don’t smokers ever get called out for leaving their cigarette butts behind?  I did a little digging and I was shocked at the statistics, yet very happy with a discovery I made.

First, a brief synopsis of what sort of damage this particular type of litter causes:  just like plastic and Styrofoam, wildlife mistakes the butts for food and ingests them, ultimately resulting in their death.   This past September during the Annual Coastal Cleanup Day, data provided by Save Our Shores reported that over 36,000 cigarette butts were collected in a single day, making them the single most abundant form of litter found.  An article published by ANR reported that the city of San Francisco spends approximately $11,000,000 per year, (that is not a typo) on the removal of littered butts.  Have I mentioned how bad they smell, especially while you are enjoying the fresh and salty sea air?  Lastly, from a personal standpoint, I have become extremely frustrated and nauseated to find my toddlers putting a nasty cigarette butt in their mouths that they’ve discovered on the beach, and unfortunately this has happened on multiple occasions.   This form of litter is disgusting, dangerous, and . . . illegal!

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately for some reason, so yesterday I decided to call the City of Capitola to ask a few questions on the subject.  I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that in 2009, Ordinance #943 was passed, which made it not only illegal to leave butts in the sand,  but also illegal to smoke on any Santa Cruz or Capitola beach.  How have I never heard of this!?!?  You mean I don’t need to just plug my nose as the person next to me blows smoke in the direction of me and my family?  I can actually inform them that smoking on any beach in Capitola or Santa Cruz is illegal?  I honestly have no problem doing that whatsoever.

You may have seen some of the "Bait Tanks" along the Santa Cruz coastline; those nifty steel receptacles that read, “Save Some Fish: Feed Me Butts!”  Since Save Our Shores has advocated for the installation of these tanks, data shows that cigarette butt litter has decreased by 70% on average.  That is pretty amazing, is it not?  Cutting the #1 pollutant down by 70%!  People have the right to smoke- who am I to make life decisions for someone else?  All I am saying is that if you do, please dispose of your trash properly!  Unfortunately there are always going to be those people who don’t realize that the rules apply to them, and for them I have a suggestion:  be prepared to get a ticket and a fine… the city is in need of revenue and you are the solution!