No butts about it: Downtown Telegraph Street gets new cigarette waste boxes
On Friday the Carson City Downtown Business Association hosted a “No Butt Party” eco-mixer. In an effort to help clean up the cigarette butt problem in the Downtown Telegraph Square area, the DBA purchased four “Butts Only Boxes” from Ken Beckstead of Cigarette Pollution Solutions.
The Butts Only Boxes are high grade steel, built to withstand bad weather and have a metal fenced opening that prevents animals and people from retrieving the contents.
These boxes are black, look nice and are locked. Each box holds up to about 600 butts each. Beckstead, the inventor of the boxes, has his Butts Only Boxes in various sizes and are located in hundreds of rest stop areas up and down the California coast and in Las Vegas.
Beckstead has an extensive background in storm water pollution prevention and is passionate about his work.
“I want to preserve the environment for future generations, we need to protect our ecosystems and resources by preventing cigarette waste from entering our storm systems and poisoning the waters," he said. "Small steps like what you are doing in Carson City have large impacts on the environment. It is a great start."
Cigarettes are the number one littered item in the world, according to information on the Buttsonlybox.com website with more than 100 million pounds of cigarette butts thrown away each year.
“I am so glad we can be a part of doing something so positive to help our environment and keep our Downtown clean," said Liz Andrews Booth, president of the Carson City Downtown Business Association. "We are grateful for the help from the city office for helping us to find the 'Butts Only Boxes.' These boxes are part of the 'Keep America Beautiful' and 'Cigarette Litter Prevention' campaign and we are proud to be a part of that.”
DBA members, guests and a special guest visit from our local Nevada Division of Environmental Protection Agency, Steven Mcgoff enjoyed the celebration. Mcgoff said: “I am is very pleased to see this happen for the Downtown.”
So when visiting Downtown Telegraph Street and you are a smoker, drop it in the “Butts Only Boxes.”
For more information on what you can do for our city and the environment check out these websites. www.kab.org and www.buttsonlybox.com.
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