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Results
Great
American Cleanups supported by Keep America Beautiful and national
sponsors:
2007: 1,271 volunteers picked up 65.75 tons of litter
2008: 857 volunteers picked up 176.68 tons of litter
Regional Stream Cleanups funded by TVA and supported by Clean Virginia
Waterways:
2007: 329 volunteers cleaned up 29.36 tons of litter
2008: 348 volunteers picked up 24.05 tons of litter
Cigarette Litter Prevention Regional Campaign:
Keep Southwest Virginia Beautiful received a grant from Keep America
Beautiful in 2008 to conduct a cigarette litter prevention campaign.
KAB required grant recipients to conduct this program in one locality;
KSVB exceeded this requirement by implemeting the campaign in four
localities: City of Norton, Gate City, Town of Clintwood and Town of
Wise.
Each locality chose a team of people to plan the campaign and to select
the target site in a downtown area. The teams actually counted all
cigarette butts on sidewalks and in the gutters prior to the onset of
the campaign and at the end of the grant. Two localities started the
program early enough to be able to conduct two scans.
All localities reduced the amount of cigarette litter from the start of
the grant to the finish by implementing an education campaign, giving
pocket ashtrays to pedestrians and also putting them in stores for
giveaway, putting up posters and setting out ash receptacles.
The results
in numbers:
Norton: First Scan= 1,329 cigarette butts
Second Scan = 1,210 cigarette butts
Third Scan = 819 cigarette butts
Clintwood: First Scan =1,249 cigarette butts
Second Scan = 968 cigarette butts
Third Scan = 899 cigarette butts
Gate City: First Scan = 847 cigarette butts
Second Scan =502 cigarette butts
Wise: First Scan = 4,061 cigarette butts
Second Scan = 2,120 cigarette butts
Keep America Beautiful launched a cigarette litter prevention program
not to single out smokers, but because cigarette litter is the number
one littered item in cleanups nationwide. Many people do not think of
cigarette butts as litter, but they are. Cigarette litter is washed
into storm drains and carried into our waterways. Cigarette butts left
on roadsides can take up to 13 years to degrade. To receive a free
pocket ashtray from KSVB, contact us at 276.628.1600.
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