SD Surfrider Foundation Taking Cigarette Litter Issue to the Streets!

The San Diego Surfrider Foundation is asking for your help this Saturday, November 20, 2010 at this year’s Hold On To Your Butt Awareness Day. Activists of the Surfrider Foundation should meet at Belmont Park in Mission Beach (intersection of Ventura and Mission) or Oceanside Pier (intersection of Pacific and Pier View Street) from 10am to noon.

In an effort to promote a cleaner beach environment, the SD Surfrider Foundation is spreading awareness of the cigarette butt litter problem and how to reduce the amount of cigarette butt litter in the San Diego region. This Saturday at the two San Diego beaches, activists, volunteers and friends of the environment will meet to spread awareness and distribute personal ashtrays as well as demonstrate to the local community how pressing the cigarette butt issue truly is in the region as well as the nation.

The San Diego Surfrider Chapter Coordinator, Bill Hickman, wants everyone to know that “cigarette butts are the most littered item in the United States and the world.  This type of litter is not just found on streets and sidewalks; the number of cigarette butts found on beaches and nearby areas is overwhelming–typically accounting for nearly one in every three items collected during a beach cleanup.”

Cigarette butts pose a major threat to our marine life and local environment. Although the cigarette butts are discarded inland, they eventually travel through sewer drains into streams, rivers, lagoons, bays and eventually oceans.  Not only do cigarette butts pose a threat to our friends in the ocean, a lit cigarette butt can also spark a brushfire in California’s naturally arid climate.

SD Surfrider’s main goal is two-fold: To ask motorists and beachgoers to safely discard their cigarettes in an ashtray and to explain how cigarette butts eventually end up in the ocean poisoning marine life as well as surfers and swimmers.

Volunteers and activists are asked to come on Saturday and look for the Surfrider tent or table to sign in and receive a HOTYB T-shirt. Volunteers under 18 are to fill out a waiver with a parent’s signature.

Friends of San Diego beaches and marine life, please show your support this Saturday, November 20^th and spread awareness during the “Hold On To Your Butt Awareness Day”!

For more information on the Surfrider Foundation San Diego Chapter, or to become a member, please call (858) 792-9940 or visit the website: www.surfriderSD.org