June 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 65

One ash receptacle can decrease the
amount of cigarette litter by 9 percent in
its respective area.

installed and being maintained by
our volunteers and board members.
Further, we have collected and recycled more than 600 pounds of
discarded butts.
What we've accomplished in a
little more than two years - in an
area with a population of about
250,000 and the second-smallest
county in North Carolina - is remarkable. I can only imagine what
can be accomplished by expanding
this to other larger areas.
Keep Blackstone Valley Beautiful,
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Donna Kaehler, Coordinator

Keep Blackstone Valley Beautiful works with nine Rhode Island
communities in the Blackstone
River Valley. I contacted each community to identify cigarette littered
areas and made agreements with
either the municipality or businesses to maintain any containers that
were installed.
It feels great to educate our communities and see the support our
municipalities and businesses are
willing to do to help solve this issue. Knowing others are also concerned and will act on these issues,
gives me the feeling we can make a
lasting difference.
We have 90 litter stands, and we
know how each stand is helping.
The thought of multiplying this
by 10,000 stands will make a big
difference that needs to be shared
throughout the United States.
Keep Tennessee Beautiful
Edmond McDavis III, Affiliate
Services & Training Coordinator

Keep Tennessee Beautiful (KTNB)
has been directly involved with the

implementation of the CLPP in
Tennessee since 2015. During this
time, we have partnered with Bristol Motor Speedways, County Music Awards, Downtown Memphis
Commission, TDOT, the Tennessee Department of Tourism Welcome Centers, 15 of Tennessee's
Keep America Beautiful affiliates
and Tennessee State Parks to place
cigarette receptacles in parking
lots, green areas, tourist spots, etc.,
to combat cigarette litter.
Most importantly, KTNB attempts to educate smokers and
non-smokers about the dangers of
cigarette litter by engaging them
at strategically planned awareness
events and passing out on-the-go
pocket ashtrays and automobile
cupholders. These items offer an
alternative to flicking cigarette
butts on the ground.
Over the past five years, our participants reduced cigarette litter
consistent with or above the average national reduction rate of 50

percent. Our programs have been
recognized statewide and nationwide with the 2017 Non-Profit
Recycler of the Year Award from
the Tennessee Recycling Coalition and nominated by the Tennessee Governor's Office for our
efforts. It's really encouraging to
see momentum grow in reducing
cigarette litter. The more we participate in this effort, the more our
environment and our local property values will benefit.
Note: Through the Keep America
Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention
Program® (CLPP) and the nonprofit's
other public space recycling programs,
Keep America Beautiful educates and
engages consumers about the importance of proper disposal of all on-thego items (see " Design Is Key to Making
Recycling Work, " in Parks & Recreation, July 2016, pgs. 32-33).
Jerred Jones is the Program Director for Keep America
Beautiful (litterstands@kab.org). @kabtweet

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Parks & Recreation

June 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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