Keep America Beautiful presents 2020 Cigarette Litter Prevention Program grant

Published 1:57 pm Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Keep America Beautiful®, the nation’s largest community improvement nonprofit organization, today announced it has awarded a $10,000 2020 Cigarette Litter Prevention Program(CLPP) grant toCarter County Drug Prevention and Keep Carter County Beautiful to address cigarette litter in Elizabethton and Carter County.

Initially, a needs assessment will be conducted to determine hot spots for cigarette litter within the community to determine target areas for litter reduction.

With the receipt of this funding, plans have been made to distribute portable ash trays, alongside educational information, in weekly classes for both adults and juveniles struggling with substance use. Additionally, permanent cigarette disposal stations will be placed in locations considered to be at risk for cigarette litter.

“We are so excited to receive this grant and use this funding to continue our work in decreasing the effects products used for nicotine consumption have on health and the environment,” said Jilian Reece, Director, Carter County Drug Prevention.

“The Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition partnered with local school districts in 2018-19 to administer an alcohol and drug prevention survey. In this survey of 8th, 10th and 12th grade students, we learned that 10% of students reported smoking part or all of a cigarette in the past month, 21% of students reported using electronic cigarettes in the past month and 12.9 was the average age of initiation for cigarette use.

Additionally, data gathered through a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute shows that 24% of adults in Carter County report smoking, which falls above the state average of 22%. These statistics show us the potential damage that could happen to our environment if we don’t institute litter collection and prevention programs.”

Keep America Beautiful provided individual merit-based grants, totaling more than $500,000, to 47 organizations throughout the country, including Carter County Drug Prevention and Keep Carter County Beautiful. Grants were presented to Keep America Beautiful affiliates, local governments, business improvement districts, downtown associations, parks and recreation commissions, and other organizations dedicated to eradicating litter and beautifying their communities. Communities implementing the CLPP in 2019 reported an average 51 percent reduction of cigarette litter.

As part of the 2020 grant program, Keep America Beautiful is focusing on three primary types of cigarette littering interventions. Applicants will have the opportunity to focus on cigarette litter reduction through public messaging, infrastructure placement, or a combination of both.

“The Cigarette Litter Prevention Program grants empower communities to help mitigate the economic, environmental, and quality-of-life impact of cigarette littering,” said Jerred Jones, program director for the CLPP. “Access to ash receptacles and the dissemination of public education are useful tools to help reduce the most commonly littered item in our litter stream.”

The CLPP, created by Keep America Beautiful in 2002, is the nation’s largest program aimed at eliminating cigarette butt and cigar tip litter. Since its inception, the program has been successfully implemented in more than 1,800 urban, suburban, and rural communities nationwide. Over the past decade, participating communities have consistently cut cigarette butt litter by 50 percent based on local measurements taken in the first four months to six months after program implementation.

Research has shown that even self-reported “non-litterers” often don’t consider tossing cigarette butts on the ground to be “littering.” Keep America Beautiful has found that cigarette butt litter occurs most often at transition points — areas where a person must stop smoking before proceeding into another area. These include bus stops, entrances to stores and public buildings, and the sidewalk areas outside of bars and restaurants, among others.

Reece added, “We know that cigarettes are often not thought to be litter, when in fact, the waste from cigarettes can leach toxic chemicals into the environment, leading to land, water and air pollution. Our community is active in hunting, fishing, and exploring nature through walking trails, hiking, biking opportunities, and more. We intend to market this program and remind residents that keeping the natural beauty of our area must mean decreasing the prominence of cigarette litter.”

The Cigarette Litter Prevention Program is supported by funding from Philip Morris USA; RAI Services Company; and the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company.

About Carter County Drug Prevention

Carter County Drug Prevention is an anti-drug coalition designed to bring together diverse organizations, factions or constituencies who agree to work together to achieve a common goal. The vision of the organization is to create a safe and healthy Carter County. Their mission is to reduce substance abuse through collaborative planning, community action, and policy advocacy.

Our seven areas of focus are providing information to community members, enhancing skills of community members, providing support to youth in our community, enhancing access and reducing barriers to needed resources, changing consequences for negative behavior and promoting the use of rewards or incentives for positive behaviors, changing the physical design of the environment, and modifying or changing policies to reflect evidence-based strategies for youth prevention of alcohol, tobacco or drug use.

Keep Carter County Beautiful is a grassroots effort to clean up illegal litter and dumpsites in our county.The mission of Keep Carter County Beautiful is to assist our community leaders in developing a creative, comprehensive plan and new approaches in getting our county free of trash, litter and debris and set a precedent for the entire state. KCCB”s impact statement is to inspire and engage the citizens and our community leaders to initiate changes that will contribute to a cleaner, greener, safer, and healthier Carter County that will be enjoyed by all.

Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s leading community improvement nonprofit organization, inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. Established in 1953, Keep America Beautiful strives to End Littering, Improve Recycling, and Beautify America’s Communities. We believe everyone has a right to live in a clean, green, and beautiful community, and shares a responsibility to contribute to that vision. The organization is driven by the work and passion of more than 650 Keep America Beautiful affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the collaborative support of corporate partners, social and civic service organizations, academia, municipalities, elected officials, and individuals. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Donate and take action at kab.org.

Anyone who has recommendations of places within the community where cigarette litter is an issue or who wishes to receive or distribute free personal ash trays should reach out to Jilian Reece at ccdpdirector@outlook.com.