Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful announced Monday they received a $15,000 grant from Keep America Beautiful to continue their work with the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program. 

The three $5,000 block grants include Erie State Parks, the City of Pittsburgh, and the City of Erie and surrounding area.

Additionally, many other Pennsylvania organizations received Cigarette Litter Prevention Program grants ranging in amounts from $500 to $2,000, including the Bayfront East Side Taskforce, City of Latrobe, PSU Erie-Behrend College, Ridley Township, Thiel College, Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District, Keep Lancaster County Beautiful, Oakland Business Improvement District, Pittsburgh Downtown Improvement District, and Westmoreland Cleanways.

Keep America Beautiful reports an average 55 percent reduction of cigarette litter in the communities implementing KAB’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program during 2012. In 2012, the program’s 10th year, there were 195 grant-supported implementations across the country in a variety of places including downtowns, roadways, beaches, parks, marinas, colleges/universities, tourist spots, and at special events.

Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful received 2012 KAB CLPP grants and partnered to implement the program in eight locations around the Commonwealth in two State Parks, five PennDOT Welcome Centers, and one local borough.  The results averaged a 64 percent reduction of cigarette litter.

Over the past seven years, the CLPP has consistently cut cigarette butt litter by half based on local measurements taken in the first four months to six months after a program implementation.  Survey results also showed that as communities continue to monitor the program those reductions are sustained or even increased over time.

For example, more than 100 communities that started programs in 2011 achieved an average reduction of 48 percent that year, and increased that reduction by an additional 17 percent when measured again in 2012.

“The Cigarette Litter Prevention Program is a proven tool to address the number one littered item in America - cigarette butts. Thanks to Keep America Beautiful, we can continue to invest in this highly effective program,” explained Shannon Reiter, President, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful.

Tobacco products, consisting mainly of cigarette butts, are the most littered item in America, representing nearly 38 percent of all items, according to "Litter in America," KAB’s landmark 2009 study of litter and littering behavior. In response to this issue, KAB developed the CLPP with funding from Philip Morris USA, an Altria company. 

Since 2010, the program has received additional support from RAI Services Company.  Since its inception, the program has been implemented in 1,263 U.S. communities.

Research has shown that even self-reported “non-litterers” often don’t consider tossing cigarette butts on the ground to be "littering." Keep America Beautiful has found that cigarette butt litter occurs most often at transition points—areas where a person must stop smoking before proceeding into another area. These include bus stops, entrances to stores and public buildings, and the sidewalk areas outside of bars and restaurants, among others.

To address cigarette butt litter, KAB’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program recommends communities integrate four proven approaches:

-- Encourage enforcement of litter laws, including cigarette litter;

-- Raise awareness about the issue using public service messages;

-- Place ash receptacles at transition points such as entrances to public buildings; and

-- Distribute pocket or portable ashtrays to adult smokers.

The "Guide to Cigarette Litter Prevention" provides information about starting and maintaining a Cigarette Litter Prevention Program in your community, and can be found online. 

4/22/2013