On August 17th the San Diego County Chapter held its 6th Annual Hold On To Your Butt Day. It is centered around sign holding at various high traffic intersections to raise awareness that cigarette butts are litter and that they need to be disposed of properly.

This year the City of San Diego adopted a smoke free policy for its beaches and parks. Our chapter spoke in City Council meetings in support of the ordinance because we knew that it would have a direct positive impact for the beaches and water.

The smoking ban took effect on the 17th so we decided to host a press conference to raise awareness for the new ordinance and to talk about our new ashcan program. We invited a couple City Councilmembers to speak and received good tv coverage.

Surfrider chose Ocean Beach to be the target community to eliminate cigarette butt litter. To accomplish this we have installed outdoor ashcans at high traffic areas near the beach and along the main area for bars and restaurants. Most of the ashcans were purchased with grant money and we teamed with the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association for the maintainance. In exchange for buying the ashcans they agreed to empty them. If the program goes as expected we hope to roll it out to ther communities soon.

Click here for pictures.