CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston kicks off its second annual No Butts About It campaign this Saturday, hoping to make the Capital City look cleaner.
Organizer Jim Strawn said the inaugural effort saw great success in 2015.
“We had 11 butt pickups last year with over 400 volunteer hours,” said Strawn. “We picked up 180,000 cigarettes. We still have them all in a fish tank to depict an illustration of how many butts are out there. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
Strawn said most people don’t think of dropping their cigarettes on the ground as littering.
“We’re also trying to educate people that cigarette butts are not biodegradable. They get out into our water streams, clog up our sewers and fish eat them,” he said. “We’re trying to make the city something that folks are even more proud of.”
It would be much better not to have the campaign and for people not to litter, pointed out Strawn.
“I’d love to not have the No Butts About It campaign, I’d love to not have a committee. We want the city of Charleston to be butt free, we want it to be litter free. We think our town is beautiful, we know it is, and we want to keep it that way.”
The event will be from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday and will begin at the Charleston Area Alliance parking lot.