Landscape Architect & Specifier News

FEB 2015

LASN is a photographically oriented, professional journal featuring topics of concern and state-of-the-art projects designed or influenced by registered Landscape Architects.

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110 Landscape Architect and Specifier News Keep America Beautiful (KAB), through its Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP), announces availability of grants to help communities combat cigarette butts in the landscape, the most commonly littered item in the U.S. The 2015 grants total $275,000: 15 grants of $10,000; 15 grants of $5,000; and 20 grants of $2,500. Local governments, business improvement districts, downtown associations, parks and recreation areas, and other organizations dedicated to eradicating litter and beautifying communities are encouraged to apply. The deadline for all applications is Friday, Feb. 6, 2015. All interested communities and organizations need to complete an online application. Go to http:// tinyurl.com/pjlqmlw for the Grants Application User Guide. Grant winners will be announced by Feb. 27, 2015. According to KBA, communities that implemented a CLPP during 2013 reported a 48 percent reduction of cigarette litter. In 2014, the program's 12th year, there were 130 grant-supported implementations across the country in a variety of settings: downtowns, roadways, beaches, parks, marinas, colleges/ universities, tourist locations, and at special event locations. Over the past nine years, KBA reports the Cigarette Litter Prevention Program has consistently cut cigarette butt litter by half based on local measurements taken in the first four months to six months of a program, and that surveys show that those reductions are sustained or even increased over time by those communities that continue to monitor the program. KBA also reports that the more than 100 communities that launched programs in 2013 achieved an average cigarette butt reduction of 43 percent that year, and increased that reduction by an additional 34 percent when measured again in 2014. KAB research shows cigarette butt litter occurs most often at transition points: bus stops, entrances to stores and public buildings, parking lots, and the sidewalk areas outside of bars and restaurants. The Cigarette Litter Prevention Program advocates communities integrate four proven approaches: • Encourage enforcement of litter laws. • Raise awareness with public service messages. • Place ash receptacles at transition points. • Distribute pocket or portable ashtrays to adult smokers. I n f o r m a t i o n R e q u e s t # 5 9 5 Support a Butt-Free Environment Why do so many smokers think its okay to toss their cigarette butts to the ground? Perhaps some smokers think their cigarette .butts contain cotton, when in fact they're made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic with toxins that can kill fish and harm the environment. Tobacco products, mainly cigarette butts, represent nearly 38 percent of all litter items, according to Keep America Beautiful's 2009 study "Litter in America." Prior to 1954, most cigarettes were nonfiltered.

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