FAYETTEVILLE — The city is trying to make it easier for smokers out on Dickson Street to toss cigarette butts.
Transportation Division workers installed ash trays in the entertainment district Wednesday. The receptacles, paid for using a $1,000 grant from the anti-littering group Keep America Beautiful, are intended to curb cigarette litter.
A recent assessment by the city’s Solid Waste and Recycling Division found cigarette butts strewn over the street and sidewalks.
Dickson Street was swept on a Thursday and Friday this spring. Less than a week later, Energy Corps members in the division picked up more than 3,000 butts.
At A Glance
Keep Arkansas Beautiful Hotline
Keep Arkansas Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, established a hotline in conjunction with the Arkansas State Police where residents statewide can report littering, including tossed cigarette. Call 1-866-811-1222 to report trash tossed from vehicles and include the vehicle description and license plate number. The state police will send a letter to the address associated with the vehicle, but no fines are involved, according to Brian Pugh, Fayetteville waste reduction coordinator.
Source: Staff Report
“That’s not the railroad tracks or the parking lots or other areas,” said Brian Pugh, city waste reduction coordinator. “That’s just there on Dickson. It’s pretty substantial.”
Three pole-shaped ashtrays were bolted into the sidewalk in front of 21st Amendment, Common Grounds and Bugsy’s. Two smaller containers were mounted on streetlights in front of Farrell’s Lounge Bar and Grill and at the southeast corner of Dickson Street and West Avenue.
The city will do follow-up studies to evaluate if the receptacles are working and to determine whether to buy more.
Pugh said there were already 33 ashtrays on light posts on Dickson Street, but, he added, they’re not very visible.
“People don’t know they’re there,” Pugh said.
A portion of the grant will be used to buy stickers that clearly identify the containers as ashtrays.
City workers also distributed portable ashtrays restaurant and bar workers can carry with them on smoke breaks, and ash trays for outdoor tables, Pugh said.
The police and city prosecutor’s office could get involved.
“Could there be an enforcement component of this? Absolutely,” said Sgt. Craig Stout. “But there needs to be an education aspect, too.”
Stout said the two officers who routinely patrol Dickson Street on nights and weekends can work with business owners and security guards to crack down on cigarette litter.
According to Police Department records, 92 littering citations were issued in Fayetteville from May 1, 2012, to May 31. Offenses can range from flicking a cigarette butt onto a sidewalk to throwing a fast-food bag out a car window. Data isn't compiled just for cigarette butts.
State law sets fines for littering between $100 and $1,000, said Casey Jones, city prosecutor.
Apart from making streets and sidewalks look untidy, cigarette butts can be swept into storm drains and and end up in waterways.
“One of the most important things anyone can do for water quality is make sure they don’t throw cigarettes in streets,” said Sarah Marsh, Ward 1 alderwoman.
According to research by Keep America Beautiful, 38 percent of roadway litter in the U.S. is tobacco products. The top three items tossed are cigarette butts, food and wrappers, and paper.
Cigarette litter on Dickson Street could be an unintended side effect of a smoking ordinance the City Council enacted in 2004. The ordinance bans smoking in restaurants, with exceptions for establishments that only sell alcohol or provide “incidental” foods, such as pretzels or popcorn.
State law prohibits indoor smoking at all workplaces except in businesses where customers must be 21 or older to enter.