In 2015 ,the Ocean Conservancy’s annual coastal cleanup found a total of 2,127,666 cigarette butts, over twice as many as the next most common form of litter. About half of these cigarette butts were picked up in the U.S., showing that while the problem is global, much of it is concentrated in the U.S..
Rachel Kippen is the Environmental Special Projects Coordinator for the City of Watsonville, and Tara Leonard is a tobacco health educator with the Santa Cruz County department of public health. What do these two people have in common? They are working on a three year project funded by California Proposition 56, that aims to educate the public about the environmental and public health costs of cigarettes. One such program is “The Butt Stops Here”. Air Date: July 22, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080