News release from the Fort Wayne Urban League:
Fort Wayne Urban League and Tobacco Free Allen County team up for City’s Great American Cleanup
Cigarette butts are the most littered item in America(May 15, 2013) – This Saturday, May 18th, marks Fort Wayne’s annual Great American Cleanup. It is the nation’s largest community improvement program and what better way to detox our community than by ridding it of unsightly trash! This year the Fort Wayne Urban League youth and the Tobacco Free Allen County coalition are joining forces to clean up the city. The team is going to give special attention to tobacco trash, a teachable moment for kids and adults alike on the environmental harms of cigarette butts.
According to Keep America Beautiful, Inc., cigarette smoking in America has decreased 28% in the past 10 years, yet cigarette butts remain the most littered item–in the U.S. and across the globe. The organization states that dropping cigarette butts and cigar tips to the ground, putting them in planters, and disposing of them in waterways is littering. “A cigarette butt or cigar tip dropped to the ground seems insignificant. But follow that butt as it’s carried off by rain into storm drains and eventually to streams and rivers. It now adds up to a big impact on the places we live: In fact, 32% of litter at storm drains is tobacco products.”
The Fort Wayne Urban League and Tobacco Free Allen County will be meeting Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at the Urban League (2135 S Hanna St Fort Wayne, IN 46803). All participants welcome.
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