The Lake Huron Coastal Centre's Butt-Free Beach program is being expanded this year to include Sarnia's Canatara Park, the beaches in Goderich and Sauble Beach. The Centre's Outreach and Education Co-ordinator Karen Alexander explains a major part of the program is education. Alexander explains many smokers don't realize filters are made of plastic so they're not bio-degradable. They can stay in the environment for decades.
She also points out the function of the filter is to filter out toxins in the tobacco so the cigarette butt actually becomes a small package of toxic waste. Alexander says the butts can contain as many as 165 chemicals of which sixty are carcinogens and when the butt gets wet those chemicals leach into the ground.
Alexander explains a second part of the program is providing portable paper ash trays the size of a post card at the beaches. The post card can be rolled into the shape of a funnel and stuck in the sand and used as an ash try. When the smoker leaves the beach they make sure the butts are out and then take them to the nearest garbage receptacle and empty the butts. They can then take their ash tray with them to use the next time they come to the beach.
