Yuck!

Yuck.  As we stared at the word constructed from cigarette butts collected along the Port Elgin beach, the most fitting word seemed just that. During the week of The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, the number of cigarette butts we found strewn across the flat shoreline was astounding. 1200 collected in Port Elgin, 1300 in Southampton, for a total of 2500 cigarette butts on our beaches. Imagine taking a stroll along the beach, the sun is setting, the waves are rolling, and with every step you take you find someone's discarded cigarette wedged between your bare toes.

While everybody has the right to choose to smoke, everybody also has the right to clean beaches. The beach is such a public area, a haven for locals and tourists during the summer months.  Especially during the hot months of the year, our beaches are areas where children frequent. For this reason, it should not be unreasonable to want it to be smoke free. When a cigarette butt is thrown carelessly onto the sand, it immediately becomes a hazard to children, animals (particularly birds), and our Lake Huron water source.

Implementing the ban of smoking on beaches may be a long and costly process; however there is an immediate need for receptacles to dispose of the cigarette butts, such as outdoor ash trays and trash cans. This Canada Day, the Planeteers from Saugeen District Secondary School will be at the Southampton beach conducting a cleanup before the fireworks. They will be wearing 'Mind Your Butts' t-shirts and encouraging people to dispose of their cigarette butts in the receptacles that will be newly placed on the beaches in order to create a safe and clean environment.

Sandwich boards, with the same message, will be put out at special events throughout the summing including The Huron Shore Run, Cruiser Nights and at the Port Elgin band shell on Sundays.

Our ultimate goal is to have a litter and smoke free beach. Though in the meantime, we can all work together to have a clean shoreline.

Submitted by:  Aimee Bertin and Breton Devison, Saugeen District Secondary School Planeteers