On April 16, 2016, Boys and Girls Club of South Haven participated in a community-wide Team Up 2 Clean Up Event. They worked with the Tobacco Education and Prevention Coalition for Porter County, whose goals are to reduce the environmental impacts of discarded cigarette butts in our cities.
According to a 2011 The Tax Burden on Tobacco report, Americans purchased more than 287 billion cigarettes. A vast number of those cigarette butts, including the filters, will be flicked into the environment, landing along waterways, parks, beaches and public roads.
In observance of Earth Day on April 22, The Tobacco Education and Prevention Coalition for Porter County is working to raise awareness about the negative impact cigarette filters and discarded cigarette butts have on the environment.
According to environmental cleanup reports, nearly 2 million cigarettes or cigarette filters/butts were picked up internationally from beaches and inland waterways as part of the annual International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) in 2010, including more than 1 million from the United States alone.
It is imperative that we engage, educate, and empower our peers to join together to rid our community of tobacco products - including the waste - and celebrate a tobacco free lifestyle!
For more information, please contact Ryan Singh with the Tobacco Education and Prevention Coalition for Porter County at 219-464-6722 or ryan.singh@valpo.edu.