The Cigarette butts Eaters
About this good practice
The “Cigarette Butts Eaters” is the distribution equipment, of beach ashtrays. Through it, it’s possible to collect an individual ashtray, and at the exit of the beach, collect the cigarette butts, in a specific deposit. The equipment contains images, and awareness messages, for smokers. The goal is that the cigarette butts, are not left in the sand. The beneficiaries of this good practice, are first and foremost, users and dealers of the beaches, who now have a cleaner sand. However, the beneficiaries will be in practice, the entire population and all of us, since these cigarette butts, will not enter the food chain, with all the inherent damage.
Resources needed
The equipment was designed by the Tourism Office, and carried out by the carpentry services of the municipality. The decoration was made by urban art artists. Selected under a Hobby Sesimbra is Fisch and Art on the Street,13 equipments are installed in the main entrances of the municipal beaches.
Evidence of success
Calculating the number of reusable ashtrays made available on beaches over the summer, around 25 boxes of 200 units, around 5,000 ashtrays were distributed, thus, considering a minimum average of 4 butts per ashtray, it is estimated that 20,000 butts have been avoided from being left on the beaches.
Potential for learning or transfer
We are not aware of any similar project at a national level. This is an action that does not imply great investment, taking into account the cost of the raw material and in the case of decoration by artists the payment for this activity, in this case each artist received about 150€ for each work. The potential of using art to better get the message across also involves the community in the project. In order to continue this project this year a new phase of the project is already underway. In addition to maintaining the installation of the beach nourishers at the entrances to the beaches, we will also try to prevent the butts generated in the area of the concessionaires from ending up in the sand, so this season 8 smaller pieces of equipment were built and will be delivered to the concessionaires that wish to receive them. In 2022 the equipments will be decorated by the municipality's schools with images and messages alerting to the problem of cigarette butts on the beaches.
Further information
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