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.
Cigarette Litter Recycling
Keep Golden Isles Beautiful partners with TerraCycle to offer cigarette waste recycling options in the Golden Isles community.
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 an unprecedented effort, entities in Georgia’s six coastal counties joined together to battle the nation’s number one most littered item: cigarette butts.
THIS IS LITTER TOO
GA's Coast is not
an ashtray
cigarette pole & free standing receptacles
Both free standing and pole mounted units have been installed and are maintained in public spaces by City/County public works.
Does it bother you to watch people flick cigarette butts while driving? Do something about it! Safely report the infraction, and the registered owner will receive an official notice in the mail.
Join a Special Cleanup to help remove cigarette butts - the nation's #1 most littered item - from our community! What an easy way make to difference!
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.
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 has been strengthened and is reaching 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.
Glynn County government and the City of Brunswick each received stand-along and light pole cigarette waste receptacles to place in locations of their choosing with many of the light pole units utilized in local parks, historic downtown Brunswick and the St. Simons Island village area. Receptacles were also placed by Keep Golden Isles Beautiful at the Georgia Department of Driver Services, Sunset Overlook at the St. Simons Island fishing pier, the Casino public restrooms at Neptune Park and four historic downtown Brunswick pocket parks.
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.
GA's coast is not
an ashtray
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.
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.