During July and August 2020, Keep Liberty Beautiful gets the opportunity to work with ten
Georgia coastal counties and organizations in the continuing promotion of cigarette litter prevention. The campaign to promote cigarette litter prevention is called GEORGIA’S COAST IS NOT AN ASHTRAY! We are excited to reach our community population with educational information discouraging the littering of cigarette butts. Cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic, which does not quickly biodegrade and is the nation’s number one littered item.
This is the third year Keep Liberty Beautiful is involved with this joint campaign in the battle against the nation’s number one most littered item: cigarette butts. Providing comprehensive coverage of Georgia’s coastal area, Keep Pembroke Beautiful, Keep Liberty Beautiful, Keep McIntosh Beautiful, Keep Savannah Beautiful, Keep Camden Beautiful, Keep Golden Isles Beautiful, UGA Marine Extension & Georgia Sea Grant, City of Tybee, Tybee Island Clean Beach Volunteers, and Ogeechee Riverkeeper have united in a coast-wide cigarette litter awareness educational initiative: Georgia’s Coast is Not an Ashtray.
Discarded butts have a negative impact as land litter, but once blown into storm drains or tossed directly into water sources, this toxic litter becomes marine debris, leaching chemicals into marine and aquatic environments and potentially being ingested by those inhabitants. With coastal Georgia’s proximity to the Atlantic Ocean as well as its abundance of streams, rivers, lakes, creeks, salt, and freshwater marshes and ponds, the coast-wide initiative focuses on cigarette butts in relation to the water bodies. Funded by a $20,000 Keep America Beautiful cigarette litter prevention program grant, the latest effort consists of cigarette waste receptacle placement, radio public service announcements, social media/video promotion,educational outreach, drink coaster outreach, and pocket/car ashtray distribution.
With the leadership of Lea King-Badyna, from Keep Golden Isles Beautiful, the combined three-year effort results in a total of 245 public space receptacles placed in coastal Georgia. While simultaneous project-specific outreach activities will occur in all six coastal counties and supporting organizations during the effort, community-specific outreach activities are encouraged as well.
“I am so honored to work with the other partners in this campaign,” said Keep Liberty Beautiful Executive Director, Dr. Karen Bell. I believe we will make a difference in our communities and in our waterways!” “We are excited to continue the joining of forces across Georgia’s coastal region in addressing cigarette litter,” said KGIB executive director Lea King-Badyna. “With this project, we aim to positively impact Georgia’s coast regarding cigarette litter and serve as a guidepost for other coastal communities around the nation.”
For more Georgia’s Coast is Not an Ashtray program information, contact: Keep Golden Isles Beautiful, info.kbgib@gmail.com or 912-279-1490 or log onto www.georgiascoastisnotanashtray.org.
As part of Keep Liberty Beautiful, our mission is to inform our community to take green steps every day towards a cleaner, greener, and beautiful place. You can be a part of this mission by participating in the Great American Cleanup, and Georgia’s Coast Is Not an Ashtray project. You can sign up at the Keep Liberty Beautiful Facebook page or contact us at (912) 880-4888 or klcb@libertycountyga.com.