Cigarette litter can be reduced

Keep America Beautiful (KAB), the US non-profit organization that envisions a country where every community is a clean, green and beautiful place to live, said yesterday that an average 52 percent reduction in cigarette litter had been achieved in communities that implemented its Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP) in 2015.

The CLPP, now in its 14th year, is said by KAB to be the nation’s largest program aimed at reducing cigarette litter.

KAB said also that 49 new grants, totaling $240,000, would be distributed to 42 organizations through the 2016 CLPP.

The recipients would include KAB affiliates, local governments, business improvement districts, downtown associations, parks and recreation areas, and other organizations dedicated to ending litter and beautifying communities.

Since the establishment of the national initiative, communities in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Canada have implemented the CLPP to reduce cigarette litter.

One of KAB’s primary goals was to end littering in America, said the organization’s president and CEO Jennifer Jehn. KAB and its more than 600 affiliates were in the business of behavior-change. The organization’s history proved that it could change behaviors and thereby reduce litter, and that its impact was particularly evident when it came to the successful and sustained results of the CLPP.

In a press note issued through PRNewswire, KAB said that since the CLPP had been established it had cut cigarette butt litter by about half based on local measurements taken in the 4-6 months after program implementation.

‘Survey results also demonstrate that as communities continue to implement and monitor the program those reductions are sustained or even increased over time,’ the press note said. ‘Keep America Beautiful has distributed nearly $3 million in grant funding since 2006 to support local implementation of the program in more than 1,500 communities.’