Green Daily

I've been catching up on my green e-newsletter reading, including the latest Smart 2 be Green titled "The Beach is Not an Ashtray" which hit surprisingly close to home.

As you can probably guess from the title, the Smart 2 be Green post is a reminder to all of those summer vacationers and day trippers not to leave their used butts on the beach. In fact, those nasty, non-biodegradeable tidbits probably do more damage there than on a city street! So if you must smoke, plan to pack out your debris.

At the end of the post were a few links to some predictably dire but totally relevant sites about cigarette litter. Did you realize that cigarette butts "are the most littered item in the U.S. and around the world"? And that cigarette butts account for 50% of the litter in the developed world? Take that plastic bottles!

This resonated for a couple of reasons. First, because I used to be a blissfully unaware smoker, tossing butts out windows and into streets with abandon. I am mortified to remember how much littering I did! My green guilt can only be assuaged through hours of volunteering to clean up beaches and parks. Goodbye sleeping in on the weekends!

The other reason is that last week, our beloved San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newson (or as we like to call him, Mayor McHottie) proposed a "clean up tax" on every pack of cigarettes. His perspective is that discarded cigarettes make up 1/4 of the trash on city sidewalks and gutters, and it's fair to ask the smokers to foot the expense of cleaning it up.

As a former smoker, and recovering litterer, I'm with Gavin. Whatever your opinion on smoking, anyone who grew up with Iron Eyes Cody and the Keep America Beautiful campaign, plus "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute" is going to be with me on this one. You don't have to quit smoking (even though you should) but one way or another you do have to take responsibility for your trash!