How to Run a Cigarette Butt Clean-Up

Cigarette butts not only show a smoking problem in your community that affects more than just the smokers themselves, but also shows a disrespect for the beauty and cleanliness of the neighborhood or community. Putting together a cigarette butt clean-up requires a little work, but it will reap big benefits.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Plan an informative meeting to get people involved in the planning process. Find a place to hold meetings, such as a community center, church or community room at your local fire station or library. Distribute flyers with the meeting information, your contact information and information about what you are planning.
2. Organize volunteers to plan the clean-up. This should include some people to put up flyers, someone to contact the media and someone to organize donated bag lunches for the volunteers.
3. Organize separate groups on the day of the clean-up to take responsibility for different areas of your community. Provide trash bags, bagged lunches, latex gloves and a leader in each group with a map of the area they are covering.
4. Schedule an end-of-the-day meeting. Gather the groups to talk about their areas and the cigarette butt problem in the community. Consider having the media there to see the amount of cigarette butts collected and to report on the worst neighborhoods.
5. Join a national campaign to continue the clean-up in your area and take a stand against cigarette litter. Check out the Cigarette Litter campaign website (see Resources below) for more information.

Tips & Warnings

• Always use protective gear, like gloves, when doing clean ups.
• Make sure you have a method of communication between each group, such as cell phones or walkie-talkies.