CIGARETTE LITTER PREVENTION PROGRAM
Made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic, cigarette butts do not biodegrade and are the nation’s number one most littered item. Within the past decade, KGIB has secured tens of thousands of dollars in grant funding to educate residents and visitors of the dangers of cigarette litter in our coastal environment.
GOLDEN ISLES PROUD
GA's Coast is not
an ashtray
Citizens Litter PAtrol
special cleanups
Cigarette Litter Recycling
Keep Golden Isles Beautiful partners with TerraCycle to offer cigarette waste recycling options in the Golden Isles community. Made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic, cigarette butts do NOT biodegrade. Because they are made of plastic, cigarette butts CAN be recycled via TerraCycle and turned into low grade plastic products.
Cigarette butts are the number one littered item in the country, and KGIB has created an EASY and FREE way to recycle cigarette waste collected at home, at work, and during your litter cleanups. Collected waste can be dropped off at the Keep Golden Isles Beautiful office in downtown Brunswick where it will be packed and shipped to TerraCycle for recycling.
Accepted cigarette waste: extinguished cigarettes; cigarette butts; plastic cigar tips; loose tobacco pouches; outer plastic packaging; inner foil packaging, rolling paper, ash. * Cardboard box can go into residential recycling stream.
KGIB - Cigarette Recycling Program Fact Sheet
TerraCycle - How Cigarette Butts Are Recycled Fact Sheet; or learn all about TerraCycle's process HERE.
GOLDEN ISLES PROUD
Cigarette butts are the nation's number one most littered item, confirmed by a quick glance at Golden Isles roadways, sidewalks and public spaces. Made of cellulose acetate, a type of spun plastic, cigarette butts do not easily biodegrade and continue to plague our landscape for decades, leaching toxins when wet.
To help combat cigarette litter and keep our community clean, green and beautiful, Keep Golden Isles Beautiful, Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce, Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau, Brunswick Downtown Development Authority and the Golden Isles Development Authority invite local businesses to participate in a new community outreach program: GOLDEN ISLES PROUD. GOLDEN ISLES PROUD highlights the beauty and community spirit of Brunswick and Glynn County by involving and empowering businesses in the fight against this unsightly and toxic form of litter.
On the front lines, participating businesses and groups agree to maintain a cigarette litter free area surrounding their business/organization (including sidewalk and parking areas) by daily collecting and properly disposing of cigarette butts.
As cigarette litter reduction education continues leading to behavior change, local businesses have an immediate and direct positive impact by actively removing existing cigarette litter from around their premises. Together we can combat cigarette litter and enjoy a clean and beautiful community.
GOLDEN ISLES PROUD is a local effort under the umbrella of the Keep America Beautiful cigarette litter prevention program and is funded via a Starbucks Volunteer Community Grant, made possible by resident Sam Rumph.
Click HERE to learn more about GOLDEN ISLES PROUD.
GA's coast is not
an ashtray
THIS IS LITTER TOO
In 2018 in an unprecedented effort, entities in Georgia’s six coastal counties joined together to battle the nation’s number one most littered item: cigarette butts. Providing comprehensive coverage of Georgia’s coastal area, Tybee Clean Beach Volunteers, the City of Tybee Island, Keep Savannah Beautiful, Keep McIntosh Beautiful, Keep Camden Beautiful, UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant, Keep Golden Isles Beautiful, Keep Liberty Beautiful, Keep Pembroke Beautiful, Ogeechee Riverkeeper, Fort McAllister State Park and Crooked River State Park united in a coast-wide cigarette litter awareness educational initiative: Georgia’s Coast is Not an Ashtray.
Made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic, cigarette butts do not biodegrade. Discarded butts have a negative impact as land litter, but once blown into storm drains or tossed directly into water sources, this toxic litter becomes marine debris, leaching chemicals into marine and aquatic environments and potentially being ingested by those inhabitants. With coastal Georgia’s proximity to the Atlantic Ocean as well as its abundance of streams, rivers, lakes, creeks, salt and freshwater marshes and ponds, the coast-wide initiative focuses on cigarette butts in relation to coastal water bodies.
Funded by multiple Keep America Beautiful cigarette litter prevention program grants, the repeating three-month summer initiative consists of cigarette waste receptacle and signage placement, radio public service announcements, social media promotion, educational video development, business signage placement, drink coaster outreach and pocket/car ashtray distribution.
While simultaneous project-specific outreach activities occur in all six coastal counties during the June-August effort, community-specific outreach activities are encouraged as well and are ongoing.
THIS IS LITTER TOO
From 2014-17, Keep Golden Isles Beautiful received Keep America Beautiful cigarette litter prevention program (CLPP) grants enabling the creation and promotion of the cigarette litter awareness campaign, This is Litter Too (TILT). In partnership with UGA Marine Extension (MAREX) and Georgia Sea Grant (GA/SG), the TILT campaign joined three respected entities in promoting a unified program and message – that cigarette butts are litter too.
By leveraging funding, combining resources and joining outreach staff, the program strengthened and reached a wider audience. The comprehensive TILT program included the creation of business signage, an information card, bumper stickers, t-shirts, drink coasters and purposeful outreach activities targeting the general public, social media promotion, the placement of cigarette waste receptacles and light pole receptacles and a significant/weighty media presence.
After receiving national program recognition, the entities decided to expand the program to include all six of Georgia's coastal counties and to focus on cigarette litter as it pertains to coastal water bodies, and thus GEORGIA'S COAST IS NOT AN ASHTRAY WAS BORN. Securing larger grants and adding community partners enabled program expansion and reach.
Keep Golden Isles Beautiful has secured multiple Keep America Beautiful cigarette litter prevention program grants for the purchase of community public space cigarette butt receptacles.
Both free standing and pole mounted units have been installed and are maintained in public spaces by City/County public works. The "This is Litter Too" outreach program focused on Glynn County/City of Brunswick installations, while the regional "Georgia's Coast is Not an Ashtray" outreach program broadened installations to include public spaces adjacent to water bodies in all six of Georgia's coastal counties.