With the help of a $10,000 grant from the Keep America Beautiful foundation, two business organizations have launched a campaign against cigarette butt litter on the Hill.

The grant, awarded to the University Hill Corporation and Crouse Marshall Business Improvement District, paid for a large commercial vacuum designed to sweep up cigarette butts from the sidewalk — even those deeply set into the cracks of brick walkways on Marshall Street.

It also paid for the placement of 20 cigarette butt receptacles throughout the Crouse-Marshall area and pocket ashtrays to be distributed, for free, outside of bars and other businesses.

Keep America Beautiful’s cigarette butt initiative has been running for 15 years and is the largest initiative of its kind in the country.

The CMBID will employ one maintenance worker full-time to operate the vacuum.

CMBID President Jerry Dellas said the grant is exactly what the organization needed, since purchasing large machinery is not usually cost-effective. For example, it takes about 10 years to pay off a new snow plow, Dellas said.

Two of the campaign’s goals include maintaining a clean aesthetic for the area and educating people about how harmful it can be to not properly dispose of cigarette butts, said Laurie Reed, the University Hill Corporation’s director of marketing and communications.

Reed cited the “broken windows theory.” She said when there are signs of disorder, there will likely be more crime. Cigarette butts are such signs of disorder, she said. Reed added that the theory has been applied in New York City and Boston with success.

To deal with cigarette butt litter, officials have to react proactively, like graffiti initiatives in the past, Dellas said.

“A lot of the times we have to clean up messes from the night before,” said Jim Hicks, manager of J Michael Shoes on Marshall Street. “It’s just so important for a successful business to keep your storefront clean and appropriate for customers to enter.”

In the past, when Hicks and his employees had to extensively clean their storefront, cigarette butts were just as unsightly as other types of litter, he said.

The CMBID’s new vacuum will contribute to the clean aesthetic J Michael Shoes needs, Hicks said.

Dellas said most people think discarding cigarette butts on the sidewalk is not littering. Education efforts could motivate people to use the reciprocals, though, Dellas said.

Hicks said he is optimistic. Cigarette butts remain a problem, but there isn’t as much litter as there used to be, he said, likely because fewer young people are smoking.

Noticeable improvements will be made due to the grant, Hicks said he believes.

“We’re not necessarily discouraging smoking,” Reed said. “We’re just trying to get people to do the right thing.”

 

Published on October 2, 2017 at 11:05 pm

Contact Charlie: cesawyer@syr.edu